We're currently staying in Nice. Our first introduction was via Nice-Ville train station where a few dodgy blokes were hanging out the front. And then we dragged our suitcases along some back streets to get to our hotel, thanks to Google Maps. So our first impressions weren't great. However we soon realised our cconcerns about Nice were unwarranted when we walked further along the main street, crossed through a thin green park and finally viewed the Promenade des Anglais beside the pebbly beach and blue Mediterranean.
Next door to our hotel was a small bookstore. It's name was Librarie Massena Around The World and sold only English language books. When I asked the store manager, Amy, about the store she explained that the store had been open for 11 months and catered for a large population of English language locals and tourists in Nice. She also commented that reading English language books was quite trendy at the moment amongst French speaking youth.
Librarie Massena Around The World felt bright and fresh, Amy was lovely, and they had a wide variety of newly released novels for a relaxing holiday read beside the Mediterranean.
Amy also told me that an English author/actress had dropped in just a few days ago, signed some of her books and then left. Always a sucker for celebrity I purchased a signed copy of Celia Imrie's "Not Quite Nice" for my wife and surprisingly ended up reading it first. The book referred to locations in Nice that we had also visited, so it turned out to be a fun read. While it wasn't an action/adventure novel the name "James Bond" was still mentioned !
The French language Massena Bookshop was literally 100 metres up the road. Bigger in size than it's English language counterpart it contained thousands of books, souvenirs and gifts. And the window display celebrated the 150th anniversary of the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. I did forget to mention that a bookshop in Strasbourg also had a similar window display too. It appears the French must have an affinity with the English detective, especially on his anniversary.
Librarie Jean Jaures is on the edge of the old town in Nice. It sold new books.
The Ala Sorbonne on the other hand I suspect sells secondhand books on every topic imaginable. The store was massive and had thousands of great books on its shelves. It's definitely one of the largest used book stores I've ever visited. I managed to find a couple of French language Ian Fleming novels but they didn't belong to the series I was hunting.
And here's a couple more photos from Nice:
Place Massena
Boarding a plane at Nice Airport for the next country on our holiday, Italy
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