I love Provence’s Le Bleuet bookstore

Wow – I’ve found my my new favorite bookstore in France!

We were on holiday in the Luberon valley of France this summer when we were told we had to stop off at the Bleuet bookstore in the charming little town of Banon.

We were visiting towns around the region, and so when we stopped in Banon, we toured around the beautiful town and then spent about an hour at the wonderful Bleuet before stuffing our already packed car with our purchases.

Billing itself as the seventh largest independent bookstore in France, le Bleuet was founded in 1990 and is housed in a series of buildings that have been joined together.

The bookstore is spread out over four levels, and contains a whopping 110,000 books – with an additional 190,000 in the warehouse.

I am embarrassed that, living abroad, I have to depend on Amazon as much as I do. It makes me want to cry when I click into their site for books and they want to sell me toasters, socks and baby clothes that I maneuver through to find the books. That’s why I love walking into independent book sellers like Bleuet, people who really care about books and reading. Le Bleuet also offers an interesting calendar of author readings at their store.

As a reader and writer, my conscience is much more at ease supporting independent bookstores like le Bleuet … and I wish they were closer by where I live!

I’ll be back when I’m next in this corner of Provence – and hope all you readers and book lovers will visit le Bleuet next time you are in Provence, too.