I'm in book heaven!

We love Carcassonne and Narbonne especially Carcassone with its impressive double ring of ramparts and 52 massive stone towers, but this year we have decided to embrace the local  villages of the Minervois. Today we visit Montolieu, the Village du Livre (Book Village).

Only  800 people, live here but it boasts around fifteen independent bookshops specializing in second-hand, antiquarian, and rare books.

Two of the most beloved and iconic shopfronts are La Rose des Vents and Librairie Abélard. All over town there are murals and statues celebrating books and authors everywhere, even a museum of printing...  

OMG that made me feel old.  I remember taking my Special Ed class to the Sydney Morning Herald in the seventies and visiting the composing room.  Men (and they were all men) worked at massive steel benches arranging columns of lead type into heavy iron page frames. 

I remember a fine aerosol of black ink in the air, coating everything - even us!  A really friendly Linotype operator typed out the students' names and they watched fascinated as the machine dropped a fresh, hot-metal line of their names into a cooling tray. 

They phased that out of course, but I kind of wish I had asked for one too.  I wonder if any of the students (now in their late fifties! still have theirs)

So back to Montolieu...Around every corner is something interesting.  Old houses, art galleries and in France in summer of course there is music.  

We especially liked L'Atelier Chris & Francis.  We met Chris and she explained how she creates a photograph using traditional silver halide (argentique) photography. Her husband, Francis then created  a vibrant, textured painting  directly over or inspired by her compositions.

They worked together to create incredible sculptures.

We had never heard of the La Manufacture Royale.  We stumbled upon it while we were exploring the town.  Holey moley is an impressive place. Accommodation, swimming pool, restaurant and JAZZ! Unfortunately we couldn't book in this time but it is certainly on the list for our next visit

The history is incredible... but more of that next time!