Tuesday, July 14, 2009

LIBRAIRIE LA NERTHE – SUPERB BOOKSHOP IN TOULON

I stumbled on to this store in the old pedestrianised part of Toulon where we were staying and was surprised at the size of the store and the range of stock. Almost entirely, of course, French language titles, but there was also a good representation of Penguin Classics in English.
I thought, unusually, I was going to be able to escape the store without buying anything when on the way out I was arrested by a hardback title called Le Languedoc by Andree Terlizzi – Eitions Jeanne Laffitte – E23.
The book arrested me because of it’s appealing appearance but especially because of the subject matter.
The Languedoc is a region in France that we got to know quite well through staying on three occasions at Les Mimosas in the village of Roquebrun on the river Orb. Les Mimosas is a fine chambre d’hote that was established, owned and operated for a decade by ex-pat kiwis Denis and Sarah La Touche. These days they are living back in New Zealand on Waiheke Island where Denis works as a photographer while Sarah works in the food/health industry. During the time they owned and operated Les Mimosas we had three wonderful holidays there and explored the region quite extensively.
And here in front of me in this wonderful bookstore was this beautiful book. The moment I opened it I knew I had to own it, even though it is written in French!
The author/illustrator is a fine water colourist and it is his numerous water colours featuring attractions from throughout Le Languedoc that sold the book to me.
The main towns in the region are Narbonne, Beziers, Montpellier and Nimes.

Librairie La Nerthe
17, rue Paul-Lendrin
83000 Toulon
Librairie.nerthe@wanadoo.fr
http://www.alaneithe.fr/

1 comment:

Vanda Symon said...

Ha, you can't help yourself, but then, you wouldn't want to rue a missed opportunity. It's not like you could just pop back to the book shop later. I hate to think how much your baggage weighs, or are you posting them home as you go?

The Languedoc sounds like an amazing area. One brought to life for me when reading Kate Mosse's novels. It's on my 'one day'travel hit list.