Want to offer a book for Christmas ? Béziers booksellers open their world to you

Le Chameau Malin is a bookstore but also a publishing house that highlights the history and the riches of life in Béziers. Diane Petitmangin

Le Clareton des sources is the great general bookstore in Béziers. You can find everything there, on all subjects and for all ages. Diane Petitmangin

Aurélien Moitrelle a fêté en novembre le premier anniversaire de sa librairie Planète Manga. Diane Petitmangin

Romans, polars, bandes dessinées, livres d'art ou d'histoire, essais… Le monde foisonnant des livres est pluriel et varié. Petit tour non exhaustif des cadeaux à mettre sous le sapin.

Words and wonders… Out of ideas for a gift under the tree for the aunt or brother-in-law or for the little niece or grandfather's New Year's gift ? Books remain a sure bet, which open up so many worlds, familiar, imaginary, unknown, to explore.

Whether you like them sweet, mixed with rain, rustling with fury or tinged with melancholy. Whether you are a fan of the naked novel, the extravagant biography or the disheveled essay. Whether you like literature, white or black, the big one that carries you away and the “small” one that comforts.

Whether you love the clear line of comics or the more troubled and disturbing one of singular authors, the stylized and incredibly diverse fervor of manga or the restless beauties of a graphic novel… Books are fabulous springs to live and feel and booksellers are their most valiant heralds.

At Clareton des sources

In Béziers as elsewhere, Christmas rhymes with fever in bookstores. At Clareton des sources, Myriam Poitou, the manager, faces the 2024 vintage with a certain phlegm. The “machine” is well-oiled and the teams are well-oiled.

“Christmas is something that is planned from… September. Right now, we are already working on the spring selection…” In any case, “the orders are placed and, in December, this requires special logistics because we receive a lot of deliveries, every day. Fortunately, the publishers are making efforts to supply us on time”.

That means tons of books to unpack and index before putting them on the shelves – you better have strong backs! As for the employees, who each have their own field of expertise, they are on the same diet as Maryse Poitou: “We have a seasonal worker among us for a month to help us, but we are all working overtime this month, within the limits of legal obligations, of course. It's a lot of work.”

The Clareton des Sources is open from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. non-stop during the holidays, “with an hour for lunch, all the same, and if necessary, we allow ourselves a break to relax and drink tea”. An excess of work that does not manage to erase the affable smiles of the employees, always ready to guide readers, guide them or make them discover their favorites.

“As for trends, there aren't really any among adults. We have a lot of requests for books that were awarded this year (Goncourt, Femina, Medicis, etc.) and for comics like Lucky Luke or Black & Mortimer. In children's literature, it's different, we have a lot of requests for novels that are good for children, albums that talk about confidence or self-esteem”.

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The Clareton selection
In addition to award-winning novels like Houris, the Goncourt by Kamel Daoud (Gallimard), don't miss Drapeau noir, by Dominique Maisons (La Martinière), a love story and a historical fresco of anarchism. In the Shadow of Winnicott, by Ludovic Manchette and Christian Niemiec (Le Cherche Midi), an English castle, a French tax collector and strange events…
Far from the universe of Mythologie du .12, by Célestin de Meeûs, who see two idle buddies in a parking lot and the tipping point. In the beautiful books, we find Lakbay, échappées dessinées, the travel notebooks of Stéphanie Ledoux (Elytis). In the comics section, there is Grand Petit homme, by Zanzim (Glénat), when value has nothing to do with size.
For the youngest, we melt for Les larmes du tigre, by Agnès Dommergue and Sande Thommen (Grasset), where the wind of childhood and wild life blows.

Planète Manga

Satisfied – although very busy –, Aurélien Moitrelle is certainly, he who opened his bookstore Planète Manga a little over a year ago. “I am happy because my goal was to reach adult and young adult manga fans and it has been achieved”.

A bookseller at heart after a career change, he has successfully chained events: book signing sessions with Léo, a Swiss mangaka published, which is also published by Myria, a publishing house from Béziers, the One Piece animation that has been extended…

Shojo, shonen, josei or seinen, Aurélien Moitrelle welcomes all the diversity of manga and his readers return the favor. “There are the loyal ones who come every month to get the new volume of the series they follow, the curious ones who want to discover another universe”. Aurélien's new plan, within two years, is to expand to accommodate and promote the 4 to 6,000 works and all the merchandising (figurines, cards, etc.).

His 2024 favorites go to Jimbocho Sisters, by Kei Tôme (Mangetsu), “a slice-of-life manga that follows three sisters who, in spite of themselves, inherit their grandfather's bookstore. The drawing is very accomplished. It's a little gem”.

There is also My Little Museum of Dark Ideas, by the famous Léo (Myria), a one-shot that brings together eight stories to be reserved for an adult audience because it addresses social issues such as depression or loneliness. Finally, Aurélien recommends Freequest, by Reno Lemaire (Pika), “a fantastic manga, from 12-13 years old, with a heroine who finds herself catapulted into incredible adventures. It's dynamic and fluid to read”.

Le Chameau Malin

If you can find all the books at the bookstore Le Chameau malin, you have to admit that his heart beats for the history and life of the city of Béziers, of which he is the publisher. Four works are thus in the spotlight this month of December, which have just been published.

Prolix, Jean-Pierre Nitus offers Jean Magrou, sculpteur biterrois. Already the author of a monograph on Injalbert, of whom Magrou was a student, the author delved into the archives and “I found that he had a very rich life. He traveled and knew Pasteur and Marie Curie. He made war memorials because it allowed him to live and do what he loved. His sculptures are very fine and he is a man to rediscover”.
His 2nd opus, Que passe les ydoles, “is a short novel with a historical character”which delves into the wars of religion and opens in Béziers in 1542, when the first Protestant, who was a Bible seller, was burned at the stake. Highly recommended…

Rose-Marie Fouet is a historian but has delved into etymology for Tout le monde parle occitan. Reading the TLFI (Trésor de la langue française informatisé), a dictionary of the French language of the 19th and 20th centuries, “I realized that there were many errors. For them, everything was Provençal. I had fun and even enjoyed repairing them” and giving back to the Occitan words borrowed by French their true roots, through a work that is not a lexicon but draws on the geographical origins of the terms, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Playful and spirited.

Finally, Alex Bèges-Cabanes also takes hold of history to bring the city back to life at the dawn of the 20th century with Mystère au Grand-Théâtre – Béziers in 1912. A criminal investigation that begins in the Isabelle theater, named after the architect who designed it and whose 180th anniversary was recently celebrated.

At that time, the municipal theater “although in decline, remains the beating heart of the city”. The society of the time, the customs and the politics, thanks to a work on period documents, come to life through fiction. Delicious and instructive.