It was hot, still afternoon in June when Madame Masson set out on her mission. Armed with a blank check, a copy of her latest phone bill and her French residency card, she walked the winding neighborhood streets to her destination. The building was bigger than she'd remembered. Summoning her confidence, she walked through the heavy double doors and up to the woman seated behind the counter.
"Bonjour," said Madame Masson. "I'd like to apply for a library card, please." A look of confusion flashed across the woman's face, then a small smile. "You'll need to go across the street to the library to do that. This is the neighborhood cultural center."
Oops.
Undeterred, Madame Masson thanked the kind woman and walked out of the big building and across the street to the library where she announced her desire to apply for a library card for the second time that day.
"Identification?" Check.
"Proof of address?" Check.
"Check for 11 euros?" Checkity-check.
Several stamps, forms, keyboard strokes and a signature later, Madame Masson got her library card on that hot, still June afternoon.
Her library card and the receipt for an adult membership...not for adult books.
The library was about 2,000 square feet, divided into the usual sections: fiction, autobiographies, periodicals, juvenile and foreign language. In search of books in her native language, Madame Masson bee-lined it to the eight shelves marked anglais. It seemed the librarian was right when she told Madame Masson that they didn't have much to offer in anglais. But among the book titles she recognized from her forced-reading-list in high school, Madame Masson found a few little treasures.
One such unexpected treasure came when she realized that if she focused her eyes on just the English book titles, she could pretend she was in America for a few brief moments.
An hour later, Madame Masson made her way to the desk with her selection of six books. (Just under the max limit of seven.) She was pleased with her choice of two books in anglais and four in français - two of which were written by Senegalese authors. Le ventre de l'Atlantique, by Fatou Diome, is about a woman whose brother wants to leave Senegal to live the dream in France. Abasse Ndione is the author Ramata and is also from the town of Bargny - Madame Masson's old neck of the desert!
We shall see on July 3rd, the return due date, how far she made it in her reading list.
"Bonjour," said Madame Masson. "I'd like to apply for a library card, please." A look of confusion flashed across the woman's face, then a small smile. "You'll need to go across the street to the library to do that. This is the neighborhood cultural center."
Oops.
Undeterred, Madame Masson thanked the kind woman and walked out of the big building and across the street to the library where she announced her desire to apply for a library card for the second time that day.
"Identification?" Check.
"Proof of address?" Check.
"Check for 11 euros?" Checkity-check.
Several stamps, forms, keyboard strokes and a signature later, Madame Masson got her library card on that hot, still June afternoon.
Her library card and the receipt for an adult membership...not for adult books.
The library was about 2,000 square feet, divided into the usual sections: fiction, autobiographies, periodicals, juvenile and foreign language. In search of books in her native language, Madame Masson bee-lined it to the eight shelves marked anglais. It seemed the librarian was right when she told Madame Masson that they didn't have much to offer in anglais. But among the book titles she recognized from her forced-reading-list in high school, Madame Masson found a few little treasures.
One such unexpected treasure came when she realized that if she focused her eyes on just the English book titles, she could pretend she was in America for a few brief moments.
An hour later, Madame Masson made her way to the desk with her selection of six books. (Just under the max limit of seven.) She was pleased with her choice of two books in anglais and four in français - two of which were written by Senegalese authors. Le ventre de l'Atlantique, by Fatou Diome, is about a woman whose brother wants to leave Senegal to live the dream in France. Abasse Ndione is the author Ramata and is also from the town of Bargny - Madame Masson's old neck of the desert!
We shall see on July 3rd, the return due date, how far she made it in her reading list.
13 comments:
The children loved your story of the Library...
as they are regulars at their own, I think they miss theirs!
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p.s. Buddy was so thrilled to know you are the very important Madame!
Very exciting...hurray for public libraries!
Love you,
Kate
I'm delurking to say how much I enjoyed this entry. I am a librarian in the US and it was fascinating to me to learn of some of the differences and similarities between the bibliotheque municipale and my public library system.
Ellen
Yay for Kari! :)
Funny. The due date on the three C.S. Lewis books that Sharan borrowed for me (she's a fab friend! ;)) from the British Council Library in Mumbai are also due on July 3rd!
Happy Reading! :D
Six books in less than two weeks...I'd never make it. Although I guess the French ones would go by pretty fast since I'd have no idea what they said!
Bummer you had to pay :(
The médiathèque in Antibes was free.
Happy readings!
Kari,
bravo! You are bold and courageous in your pursuit of what you want to accomplish.
An aside note: It amazes me how many people from all over, comment on your blog. It actually gives me a taste of what it must be like to live outside one's natural habitat...one's home. Sometimes I feel so very sheltered. I so enjoy reading others' comments from their perspective as they live on soil other than their own homelands. Just thinking....
I am so impressed that you can read books in French. It'd be a LONG time before I could do that in Armenian...especially with the different alphabet. I'm at the year mark and still read like a 5 year old!
Interesting.
We can't really get used to the idea that newly released bestsellers must be rented at our libraries here in Quebec. I think it's for about $4.00.
And we love our tiny little English corner!!
Hi , french reader here de-lurking to say that my town ,albeit being a lot smaller than Lyon , is doing pratically the same with their library cards scheme .
I can , for 20 euros a year ,
choose 6 books , 6 magazines , 6 comics (bandes dessinées) and 6 dvd.
It's 10 euros for the books and another 10 for the dvd's (and software/videogames).
Unemployed , students and people with very little income (elderly and young famillies ) get it for free.
If you're a fast reader and use the internet reservation thingie (your reservations being sent to your local branch) , you can maximize your investment in a spectacular way.
They also have art exhibits , afternoons for kids with "conteurs" (story telling people performing for the little ones) ,
and , mostly, dedicated staff eager to pass on the love of reading (and it's a MAJOR task !)
Mom,
Hmm, do you guys have plans to move from CR?! I'm sure Kari and I could come up w/ a few suggestions.
Move? WE don't have plans to move, at least not far away...but we sure would love to do some traveling...and I have no doubt that you and Kari could come up with some destination ideas. ;o)
Which library did you go to? The library in Part Dieu is probably the biggest, and although it doesn't have a section for livres en anglais, it does have bookes separated by country of origin, and each of these little sections have books in their version originale (VO).
So you can check the US, Canada, Great Britain, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, etc. sections for their books in VO and get a pretty big selection to chose from.
Libraries are quite different here though. Foreign books (even ones in French) are classified by country of origin, which is just weird and makes it harder to browse for stuff. Movies are sorted alphabetically by director's last name, not by the title, so you can't find anything unless you are a real aficionado. And you can check out art!
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