Aymat Catafau, retired academic and member of the Archaeological Association of the Pyrenees-Orientales, did not expect to discover such a spectacle this October 29 in the morning when he opened his bookstore. However, he puts things into perspective: “I“I lost 8,000 euros, but no one died.”
On the night of Monday October 28 to Tuesday October 29, the small bookstore of old and modern Books of this former academic, located rue Louis Pasteur in Perpignan, was literally flooded. After the ceiling collapsed under the weight of the water… Pouring in buckets from the terrace above! Aymat Catafau, a man of letters but also of common sense, tells what he describes as “my little misadventure”, in light of the tragedy that took place in Valencia, Spain.
“Certainly, I lost a good part of my inventory, 800 books by miracle of no great value, out of the 4,000 in the bookstore. Of course, I have calculated the loss and I have 8,000 euros, but as I keep repeating to my relatives, my friends and my clients: no one died.”. That morning, he was getting ready to open his business, like every morning, when he felt an abnormal pressure behind the door. “I pushed as best I could and a real little stream flowed. The books that were placed on the ground, in piles, were floating in 5 cm of water. Those that were stored on the shelves were not damaged The most annoying thing about all of this is that I now have a gaping hole where the false ceilings used to be.” The bookseller was able to rent a dehumidifier, “in order to prevent the “survivors” from becoming moldy with a humidity level of 90%”, he confides.
Two days later, Aymat Catafau reopened his bookstore to, in part, reassure his regulars.
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