She yellow van looks a bit like a bee, and, if you think about it, there is a great similarity between the vehicle of Lucille Gomes-Fernandes, of the traveling bookstore Ella, and the foraging insect. The two are constantly traveling for their work, but what makes Lucille happy are the books that she has been selling in the Haute Gironde markets since October 2023.
Nothing predisposed Lucille Gomes-Fernandes to become a bookseller. Certainly, certain family signs could predestine her to this career. His father ran an industrial cleaning company in Corrèze and had one job: maintaining the Brive book fair. “We went there every year,” says Lucille, “I always loved books, I spent my time in the library. » However, after the baccalaureate, she did not enter the faculty of literature, but of anthropology, a science which studies the interactions between men and human groups. To this, she added a professional degree in coordination of cultural and social projects and worked as a facilitator, then manager and coordinator of a Bordeaux neighborhood center.
In 2013, Lucille Gomes-Fernandesassure took charge of a cleaning company in Gironde. She is at the oven and the mill in this small business, always with the idea of selling books in mind. In 2021, her existence and that of her husband and their two children are taking a new direction. The whole family embarks on a year-long world tour. On the program, Asia, Polynesia and Latin America.
Colorful Bookmobile
In September 2022, the family returns to Bourgeais. It was at the start of the 2022 school year that Lucille thought she would put books in her car and go sell them. She has the idea and puts everything in place to make it happen. “I didn’t want to settle down, but to go shopping,” a bit like the bee that forages in different meadows. “Through Pôle emploi, I did internships in bookstores, like that of Lily jeunesse in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, notably for the Livres en citadelle fair and this allowed me to see that I liked it . »
She also follows professional training to work as a bookseller. By chance, she “found a bookmobile that was selling, and in the right colors too” and fitted it out with shelves loaded with more than 2,200 titles. Its first market, in Bourg-sur-Gironde, went well. Lucille travels throughout Haute Gironde and even Charente. And, “each market has its specificity, in Bourg-sur-Gironde, for example, it is more for children, in Saint-Ciers-sur-Gironde, a local clientele focused on “feel good” and in other markets, customers come to collect orders. Lucille admits that she “likes to set up projects, to generate new ideas”.
