Receive a book and a rose: France prepares to celebrate its independent bookshops
The 28th edition of the Fête de la librairie indépendante will take place on April 25
This date was selected as it is the closest Saturday to Saint George's Day in Catalonia (April 23), when people typically offer books and rosesMita Stock Images/Shutterstock
The Fête de la librairie indépendante will celebrate its 28th edition in bookshops across France this Saturday (April 25), with visitors being offered a book and a rose.
The festival will unite almost 700 bookshops in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg and is organised by the Verbes association and Librairie des Abbesses in Paris.
French publisher Gallimard has printed 27,000 of copies of a book titled Umberto Saba, poète et libraire à Trieste. The book will be offered to customers of independent bookshops across France to mark the occasion.
"This book encourages you not to leave the past behind. At a time when Europe is facing challenges, I would like to share with you how booksellers live today through books and for books... Like Saba, we seek to transcend economic reality in order to preserve our appetite for writers’ words in an age that denies them," said Marie-Rose Guarnieri from Librairie des Abbesses.
Participating visitors will also receive a rose alongside their book, reflecting the tradition practised on Catalonia’s Sant Jordi, also known as Saint George's Day (April 23).
Organisers of the festival aim to encourage French-speaking countries to adopt the Catalan cultural tradition. Millions of books are typically sold in Spain on Saint George's Day.
Find a participating bookshop near you using the interactive map above. Note that this map was published in 2025 and so you may wish to double check with your local independent bookshops whether they will be participating this year.
Support for independent bookshops is falling
Last year, the Centre National du Livre (CNL) published their biannual study on French reading habits titled, Les Français et la lecture. The findings show independent bookshops have fallen behind superstores as the most popular place to buy books for the first time since the initial study was conducted in 2015.
This marks a turning point in a previously sharp upward trend which saw a record number of bookshops open in France in recent years.
Why are bookshops not just like any other business?Massimo Santi / Shutterstock
France has typically made an effort to protect independent librairies from the dominance of major online retailers.
It does not apply to orders made directly with local bookshops for readers to then collect, and is intended to defend the country’s independent bookshops by enticing readers to go in-store.
EU judge Bruno Stromsky reiterated that the government measure was unlikely to benefit the 3,500+ independent bookshops in France given that they represent the ‘densest network’ in the world.
Government figures also show that France has 15,500 public libraries, compared to 3,000 across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
