Every month, in the Pigalle neighborhood in Paris, beyond the red-light district and Moulin Rouge, you’ll find a congregation of the literary sort.
“The Book Club” is a party that occurs on the last Wednesday of every month at newly refurbished Le Carmen cafe and bar. The event has one simple rule: bring a book, and make sure to swap it by the end of the night. Forget keys or clothes, this is a more modern way to meet people, the event founder Rosa Rankin-Gee believes. “Books don’t spill,” she said. “They are pocketable, holdable, durable, lovely and say so much about the person who brought them.”
The venue (22, rue de Douai; 33-1-45-26-50-00; www.Le-carmen.fr) is a 19th-century private mansion once inhabited by Georges Bizet, where he supposedly wrote the opera of the same name. The space, with its ornate moldings and plush velvet seats, recreates the ambience of “the literary salons of yesteryear, but brings them up to date,” said Ms. Rankin-Gee. “And democratizes them, in a sense, because just by turning up with a book, every single person contributes.” The atmosphere is rounded out by a selection of retro cocktails and live piano music.
The Book Club goes hand in hand with an upcoming arts journal called A Tale of Three Cities, to be released soon.
“Our aim is to join up the dots between London, Paris and Berlin by showcasing the cities’ new writing, photography and art in a printed magazine,” Ms. Rankin-Gee said. “The Book Club embodies that idea of sharing and exchanging stories, and our esteem for paper and print.”
[from New York Times In Transit blog]
No comments:
Post a Comment