23 oct

Montmorillon, the town (village) that we’re staying at calls itself: Cite de l’ecrit, des metiers du livre. In english: the city of writing, of all the professisons of the book. Not a bad town for us to arrive at. It is kind of a tourist trap, of course. But then one of the nicest tourist traps that I could imagine to be trapped in.
Today I visited a few of the second hand book stores that this town has. This is my favourite kind of wandering, to be sure, but I have to say I was a little bewildered by the overwhelming quantity of french books available.
Was tempted to buy of course. My goodness, these French know something about publishing. From the pocket, to the excellent paperback to the mouth watering hardbacks, more exquisite than the American Library of America or the Dutch Atheneum books. But well out of price range, these books are, or, to be honest outside range of understanding, because my french is not improving as fast as I would like to.
But then you have the Zodiaque series. This is publishing heaven. We are trying to hunt after 12th century France. Come to find out we are not the first ones to do so. Zodiaque did it before. Brilliantly published books, hardcover, A5 size Iwould guess, adress all the different relevant areas we should cover. I quote from one jacket all the different volumes available: Bourgogne Romane, Auvergne Romane, Val de Loire Roman, Poitou Roman, Touraine Romane… And on and on and on.
I had seen the series before. But the second hand market on French Amazon is not developped that far yet, or I do not know the good sites – which might very well be true. These Zodiaque books are, brand new, available for a startling price of €90, which has always been out of my budget, but definetely these days.
l’art Cistercien was always going to be my favourite copy. The cistercians being the ones that made Roman art into its most austere and most dignified form, I think.
Well, there were some copies available at the different stores. The first book store had a clear copy for €45. The second one an abused one for €35. The third store had another clear copy for €20. Buy me, buy me, it screamed, and so I did.
I have been glancing through it this evening, and do realize that perfection is for sale. I bought it for €20, but it is worth much more than that. As Julie said: Great buy, you just saved €75. She knows I am already thinking about ways of spending this ‘saved’ money. But she also doesnt realize that the new price doesn’t really appreciate the book, I think somehow that this book is almost priceless. Or who could price real beauty? Or true inspiration? Not the bookseller at rue des Grands Champs in the heart of Montmorillon, I think. But then, I would not have bought it for anything more expensive! Funny thing, the market is.