Build your special LGBTQI+ library Marais and gay Paris!
Since 1980, the bookstore LES MOTS A LA BOUCHE is THE Parisian bookstore of reference and an institution for readers in search of specialized works on the LGBTQI+ world and literature. Established since 1983 at 6 rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie in the heart of the emerging gay district of Paris… this iconic bookstore must resolve in 2019 from Marais because of a rent that had become exorbitant. His departure was then a strong signal of the gentrification of the Marais has become excessive... The end of an era where strolling through its aisles, participating in author signings, getting involved in activist debates, savoring its exhibitions... was a matter of quasi-pilgrimage for gays and lesbians from France and around the worldThis rent increase almost proved fatal for it, but fortunately, the bookstore was able to rise from its ashes elsewhere, but by leaving the Marais...
The bookstore " Les Mots à la Bouche » has been relocated since 2019 to 37 rue Saint-Ambroise in the 11th arrondissement (Saint-Ambroise metro station). Its collection of books is exceptional and it welcomes you every day from 10:30 a.m. to 19:30 p.m.
A few minutes walk away, at 52 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud (Parmentier metro), is the VIOLETTE & CO bookstore-café, another feminist, lesbian and LGBTQIA+ institution active since 2004. It has more than 6000 references and a events calendar very rich.
These specialist bookstores await your visit But, if you don't have the time or the possibility to go there, here is my personal selection of works talking about thehistory and LGBTQI+ life in Paris and the Marais. InYou can get them online through my website. Excellent reading!
