They are small individual businesses, specialized in the sale of books, the bouquins, from which they are named. But in addition to books, they sell old prints, old film posters, opera librettos, picture postcards. Small souvenirs of Paris, such as miniatures from the Eiffel Tower or Nôtre Dame, are on display alongside faded black and white photos of famous French cinema glories, from Jean Gabin to Michelle Morgan, from Jacques Tati to Fernandel, not to mention Edith Piaf and Josephine Baker.
After all, those small, dilapidated shops are full of memories and therefore of history. That's why they have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011. The owners do not pay taxes or rents, but are required to strictly respect the strict regulations of their trade. You may wonder how they stay there, one attached to the other, without interruption?
After all, they sell the same goods... don't they compete with each other? I don't think so, 
because each of us, potential customers, has a memory, an unfulfilled dream, a happy episode in our lives that, we don't know how, ended up there, in that little shop and not in the one next door. And they, the bouquinistes, know it. "This client is yours, the next one will be mine!", a dreamer's philosophy, a seller of memories, perhaps of hopes that only Paris can evoke.
