Saturday 24 November 2018

A new second-hand shop

The old shop of Mme Nicolas
for a long time now we have had a weekly lunch at La Petite Auberge, a simple but good restaurant in Cluny's high street. The restaurant is located next to a second-hand bookshop, Livres Anciens run by Mme Nicole Nicolas. Even though we only ever bought one small book in her shop, we got to know her.

Mme Nicolas in 2012 (photo Journal de Saône-et-loire)
She often ate at La Petite Auberge, and Bugundians being friendly and polite people, we were soon on "Bonjour" terms with her. End of April however we noticed that the shop window had been emptied, and a week later there was a little card on the door saying that Mme Nicolas had passed away. From the owner of La Petite Auberge we learned that Mme Nicolas had died after a very short illness.

the shop of Amaury Bonnetain
Until August this year the empty shop was a painful reminder that nothing in life is eternal. In August however a new card appeared in the shop window. A certain M. Amaury Bonnetain was going to reopen the shop in October, again as a second-hand bookshop. In October the shop window had al of a sudden some books in it, one of which was a standard work on Romanesque churches in the region.

Book on Romanesque churches
One of my friends was interested in that particular book. After some phone calls and an inspection of the book itself the deal was made very quickly. The new owner happened to be a very amiable person, and we have left him in charge of some book titles of books that are new no longer available.

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