Pas-de-Calais. She opened the smallest bookstore in the world in Hesdin

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Isabelle Baudelet is the bookseller of the Smallest bookstore in the world, that she launched 8 months ago in Hesdin (Pas-de-Calais) in a special place: the birthplace of Father Prévost. She wants to offer a new approach to the bookmore intimate, more poetic. Encounter.

From Roubaix to Hesdin

Opening a bookstore is a bit of a childhood dream for Isabelle. A former history teacher, she ran a refined guest house in Roubaix. She loves poetry and stories. She has written several bookson Barbieux Park, on Viviane Romance. Since she arrived in Montreuillois, she has launched “la Fabrique Poétique”, a small publishing and creation company for poetic moments and literary events. Graphic designer and photographershe is a known face in Montreuil-sur-Mer, since she also manages communication for businesses in the area.

Book village

But actually creating a bookstore was another matter. Something clicked: the closure of the Hesdin Press House. A city so beautiful without space for books, unthinkable. “I believe in a city attractive through books, like a book village. Hesdin lends itself well! »

This new bookstore is not like the others. First, it counts few references. And few copies of the same book are available. “Quality before quantity” could be the motto of the place.

Another particularity: the books and authors present are not the best known. The main themes refer to the enchanted world of the bookseller: water, textiles, landscapes, the garden, and always poetry above all.

Isabelle offers an intimate bookstore. A place more than a business. A parenthesis of poetry. “A craft bookstore,” she says.

“La slow” bookstore

“The goal is to remind people that a book is not just a consumable and disposable object. It's got everything in there. Here, these are perhaps the books of a lifetime…” she breathes.

She is aware of going against the grain of a bulimic and hurried time. She is a bookseller “who takes her time” as she says. A “slow” bookstore perhaps. A bookseller of relationships above all. “I personally know each author and publisher. I met them, I stay in touch with them.” She wants to “weave a real story with the books” she offers, like treasure boxes that you contemplate for hours to learn them by heart.

Poetically inhabit the world

At the world's smallest bookstore, a book is not a book. It is a door, a pass, a window, for a journey. Because she has a great goal, Isabelle: “to help poetically inhabit the world, that’s what the books found here want.”

The location of the bookstore has its importance in the atmosphere: it is on the ground floor of a prestigious house in Hesdin, the birthplace of Father Prévost.

A beautiful meeting between the enthusiast and a couple of artists who wanted to open their living space. The bookstore has a beautiful, warm room on the ground floor.

What exactly do we find in this unique place? Here, no paperbacks, no best sellers, no “bankable” authors. “I know all the authors, all the publishing houses personally, it’s rare.” The personal connection, the meeting, that has meaning for the bookseller. “Perhaps these are the books of a lifetime here…”

A hundred hand-picked references

Several publishing houses are represented: The Silence that Rolls, Phloème, the Silence that Rolls… The Michel Fiévet collection brings together high-quality children's books. You will also find the magazine Jardins by Marco Martella. “Editions Poésis are the cornerstone of the bookstore,” summarizes Isabelle. “I want to promote little-known independent authors and publishers,” she says again. Used books are also present, for a wide audience.

You will also find some creations with paper, such as random horoscopes, where carefully packaged messages are drawn at random.

Isabelle also offers works from his own publishing house, the Lab, with the Carnets Text'styles and the Eau woven des lavoirs. In short, a whole delicacy of leaves and paper awaits you in a hundred references!

Host a collection

Despite its youth, the small bookstore is already well recognized in Hesdin. The proof: the place was chosen to house an exceptional collection of old books! “A Hesdinois wants to bequeath his Middle Ages incunabula to the city. There are illuminated manuscripts, and even the Encyclopedia of Diderot and D'Alembert from the time of Abbé Prévost! We need a place open to the public to bring this collection to life: the town hall chose us…”

Workshops

It is also the ideal place to continue the workshops that she has launched for several years: the Text'Styles Cafés, where you share your readings with an author, once a quarter. Without forgetting the Fil en Lecture workshops on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., with this year, a project around April Fools' Day!

Because Isabelle Baudelet wants to celebrate the first anniversary of her bookstore with a participatory project. This is not the first time that she has involved the public: she had already organized a “wool river” in Montreuil, with squares of blue knitted fabrics assembled like a river.

Fish in the city

This time, she is preparing “the Unexpected Book Festival”, FIL. On March 30, 2025, a market of books and extravagant poetic objects will take place as well as a poetic and festive fish installation in the town of Hesdin. Everyone can create a fish, knitted, crocheted, fabric, and attach a poem to make you laugh. To re-enchant life and the city, Isabelle Baudelet's goal.

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