Sun, 22 November 2009
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We tell the story behind Redu, continental Europe's first book village, nestled in the heart of the Belgian Ardennes forest.Redu's an open book
Bibliophiles will think that they have died and gone to heaven upon setting foot in Redu, a charming Belgian town in the heart of the Ardennes forest founded as continental Europe's first ‘book village' in 1984.
That's exactly what happened to Henriette Luyckx when she first visited 16 years ago.
She fell in love with the town, found a building in which to set up shop and relocated from Brussels to open the country's first nautical-themed bookstore. She also heads the non-profit association of the town's 40 businesses, of which 23 are bookshops.
Luycxk estimates that her shop, Librairie de Marine, stocks some 20,000 volumes.
Why a nautical theme? “It's my personal passion,” she says, though she admits that she hasn't read all the tomes herself.
Though the town's bookstores, Marine included, all specialise in second-hand books, Luyckx also sells some new books as well – not to mention postcards, posters, barometers and other nautical knickknacks - because there's still no other shop like this one anywhere else in the land.
One can say the same for Redu, which attracts some 200,000 visitors a year from all over Europe and as far afield as the United States and Japan.
This charming town of 400 inhabitants about an hour's drive south of Brussels in the Haut-Lesse region is the mecca of second-hand bookstores.
One upon a time
Though the town traces its origins back some 1,100 years, in April 1984 it was reborn as a ‘twin' to the world's first book village, Hay-on-Wye in Wales.
The event would not have happened without Noël Anselot, a former journalist who went on to work in the oil industry. He later bought a large house in Redu for his large family, and from the start was active in community affairs.
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