The Abbey bookshop

Ok, ik ben officieel 'aangenomen' bij 'The Abbey Bookshop - librairie Canadian de Paris'. Ik kan na een week al een heleboel vertellen over deze prachtige boekwinkel, laat staan zodra ik hier twee maanden of meer werk. 't betaalt overigens erg slecht, maar dat maakt mij geen flaus aus.

Parijs is wat dat betreft 'a moveable feast' zoals Hemingway ooit mooi neerzette. Op elke hoek van de straat, waar en wanneer ook kan er van alles gebeuren! De meest onverwachte dingen. I learned the hard way, neem nooit iets 'tijdelijk' mee voor een afspraak (zoals je netbook), want voor je het weet moet je die ergens veilig zien op te bergen in een Salsa bar om twee uur 's nachts.

Nu ik er over nadenk ga ik het toch gewoon doen. Onderstaande verhaal heb ik naar Russell gemaild na de bewuste dag dat ik The Abbey Bookshop ontdekte. Hij vond het een prachtig verhaal en mede door zijn aanmoediging ga ik 'm maar bloggen. 't wel in het Engels...

What I love about Paris is the absolute random things one can encouter. Take yesterday for example. I was walking, strolling, like i do quite often lately. Actually I was searching for a suitable bar or restaurant for applying. Well, I did find a few but never had the guts to go in and ask. That French again.

Anyhoe, suddenly my eye felt on a Canadian flag, in a side street, proudly 'wapperend' in the wind. I walked passed it, walked back, curiousity had won. I walked into the street, to the flag and this was on the facade of the building:

THE ABBEY BOOKSHOP - librarian Canadian de Paris.

Of course I had to get in.

If only you could have seen the shop! Books e-ve-ry-where! Shelfs as high as the ceiling reaches, ladders to get them, piles with books, Anne Frank toilets, a basement full of books, all crampacked in a tiny shop. In the midst was a tiny chair and there sat Brian Spence, director of the whole lot. He said hello, I asked for a book (about a foreign woman entering Paris) and I knew I had to grasp this oppurtunity with both hands, so I asked if he needed some help at some point.

From here I have a long version and a short version of the story. The short one is, that I entered the store at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and that 11 hours later (on a saterday night) I said goodbye to Brian Spence at a Metro exit next to my new appartment.

You want to hear it all?

I thought so.

Well, at first I got coffee as everybody gets coffee at the shop. For free. That's why it's called the ABBEY bookshop. As for monestary hospitality. Then more coffee and as people were walking in and out, I showed him my CV, talked a bit, got more coffee, then the wine came in, than friends of Brian came in, then a lovely lady from Bremen came in and all this time I sat there, trying to get an application of some kind going or read a book or just watched.

At 7 oclock I helped closing the shop, we grabbed a very good Greek snack along the way and Brian brought me at 8 o'clock to a very strange but wonderfull theatre in Paris. 'Old french dances from the renaissance' it was titled. A lovely show, fantastic dansers and best of all was the ball afterwards.

So it happened I danced medieval french dances last night. People all holding hands, some music, a capella singing, going in circles and o my just got back in time. Medieval French dances, why not?!

Then, there was more wine, Abby's French improved, I had a talk with a girl called Manuelle and after that we all went out for some Salsa, cuba dancing, margaritha's and more.

Getting pretty close to 2 o'clock in the morning now...

I love it when random encouters all work out so well. Sometimes I wander how random they really are?

Abby at the Abbey bookshop in Paris.

It's almost a booktitle itself!
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Leuk verhaal of niet?!