Located in the historic center of Grasse, the Moulin à lire is a second-hand bookstore full of thousands of Books. But after the death of the bookseller, the question of the future of this place steeped in history arises for his heirs.
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“I can’t start again, I don’t want to start again. I’m a teacher, I love my job. I can’t, it’s a real job. You have to know it, have expertise. You have to know the value of these books…”
For Clélia Attias, we understand well, the “Moulin à lire” was the Ali Baba cave of her late husband Eric, who died on July 18, 2023 from Charcot’s disease.
And he left thousands of works in what was an oil mill. It was in 2008 that this history professor opened this very special place. A surface area of 200 m² and books everywhere, from floor to ceiling. His office remained intact, but everywhere else the works, mainly dons and flea market purchases, pile up. The classification is not trivial, specific to Eric, who could find his way perfectly between the shelves.
Books on music are located under the hanging piano.
Books relating to music are classified under the piano.
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© ALINE METAIS / FTV
Those about religion under the arms of Jesus and detective novels under a pipe!
This is a thematic classification. We tried not to pay attention to the editions but to the themes. There is the history theme, the philosophy theme, ethnography or even police…
Clélia Attias, widow of Eric Attias
How to bring this place to life? There are incompressible expenses, and Clélia has her own activity. Books or magazines are for sale at a very low price, 5 euros for the rarest. And for For the first time in its history, the bookstore welcomed actors this week for a family reading of Christmas stories. The place is really worth the detour and Clélia has an appointment at the town hall of Grasse to discuss its future. She has a proposal.
Our idea would be to create a third place, that is to say, to ask Grasse associations which would be interested to come to this shared space, we could create cultural events…
Clélia Attias, widow of Eric Attias
In the meantime, this extraordinary bookstore, currently not very busy, offers between 60,000 and 80,000 books.
A veritable maze of shelves cluttered with more than 60,000 used books!
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© Aline Métal FTV
And she is waiting to write new beautiful pages of her story, for the pleasure of all.
