Yesterday, I was referred via a tweet from my friend Javier to an article about a village in Spain, Urueña, a village with more book shops than bars. I strongly suggest the reading of that article (here, in Spanish) as the village seems to be wonderful, a destination for a future trip to Spain.
The article refers to a couple of other such “Village of Books”: Wigtown (United Kingdom), Tuedrestand (Norway) and Fontenoy-la-Joûte (France). This reminded me of another village of books in the South West of France which we visited last November, Montolieu. What best occasion than to share some lines and pictures about Montolieu than today April 23rd, the International Day of the Book.
In fact, it is interesting to know that there is an International Organisation of Book Towns (see here the article about it in the Wikipedia in English and French – more descriptive). There are about 40 such villages, a couple of them in Spain, some 7 of them in France; the first one to become such a Village du Livre in France was Bécherel, the second, Montolieu, in 1989.
Montolieu is located some 20 kilometres North from Carcassonne in the Aube department (1), and it has about 800 inhabitants, 15 book shops and a museum about book making (Musée des Arts et Métiers du Livre). We visited a few book shops, made some purchases, walked around the village and had a traditional lunch over there.
However, when we visited the village it was almost winter time, freezing, and the village was nearly deserted. I imagine that Montolieu is best visited in spring or summer, in order to enjoy lunch in a terrace and longer walks between the book shops (not all were open in last late November).
Until we come there again, I leave some pictures from that first visit.
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(1) It is also just 5 km South from Saissac and not far from Lastours, two other small villages in the region with nice castles. See here a post I wrote about a flight excursion we did over the Cathar castles with some pictures of them.
The Blog by Javier 