Rising rents push out France’s oldest, most famous LGBT bookshop from Paris’s trendy gay district after over 36 years

art-and-culture

Updated: Jan 19, 2020 12:57 IST

France’s oldest LGBT bookshop is being pushed out of Paris’s trendy gay district due to skyrocketing rents fanned by gentrification, tourism and top brands which have opened outlets there.

Les Mots a la Bouche has been a landmark in the Marais, one of the most sought after areas in the French capital, since it opened in the early 1980s.

But the landlord now wants the rent to be hiked by four times -- in keeping with the market rate -- and the bookshop will have to relocated after more than 36 years, Nicolas Wanstok, who works at the bookshop, told AFP.

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Les Mots a la Bouche is a historic bookshop, Paris’s deputy mayor for culture Christophe Girard, told AFP.

“We are very attached to it and our aim is to save it. We are continuing to seek options.”

Several historic establishments in the Marais, which was also the city’s traditional Jewish quarter, have been push out by sky-high rents.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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