Episode 59: Le messager des livres (The Book Messenger)

Luc was a maintenance technician in Parisian hotels who dreamed of becoming a bookseller. With little experience, but a lot of passion, he opened a new kind of bookstore, one aimed at serving the busy working people and immigrants living in his suburb outside Paris.

How to Listen

Listen free on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript

Ngofeen: It was 2018, and Luc Barreto was living in the city of Saint-Denis, a suburb just north of Paris. He worked as a maintenance technician, un technicien de maintenance, in one of Paris’s biggest hotels. But at heart, he was a book lover.

Luc: Je travaillais dans un hôtel. J'étais technicien de maintenance, donc je faisais un peu de tout : je changeais les ampoules électriques, je réparais ce qui était cassé, mais j’avais toujours un livre avec moi. Mes collègues m'appelaient Monsieur Livre.

Ngofeen: Luc loved the city of Saint-Denis, but there was just one bookstore in town. Luc found it strange. More than 100,000 people lived in Saint Denis… Many of them students, immigrant families, and members of the working-class, la classe populaire. And to Luc, they were all potential book lovers.

Luc: Je viens d’une famille de classe populaire qui est venue s’installer à Paris. C’est là que je suis né et c’est là que j'ai grandi. À la maison, lire n’était pas quelque chose d’habituel, mais ma passion des livres m’a aidé à mieux comprendre le monde. Alors pour moi, c’était important que les gens de Saint-Denis aient aussi accès aux livres.

Ngofeen: So in February 2019, Luc decided to quit his job, and dedicate his life to spreading his love of books. He had no idea if he could pull it off, but he had a vision, and a dream: he would help the hardworking people of Saint-Denis access the kinds of books that might help change their lives for the better.

Luc: J’étais déterminé à partager ma passion avec les gens autour de moi.

Ngofeen: Bienvenue and welcome to the Duolingo French Podcast — I’m your host Ngofeen Mputubwele. Every episode, we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your French listening and gain new perspectives on the world.

The storyteller will be using intermediate French and I will be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again – we also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

Luc: Luc first fell in love with books his last year in high school. Like many teenagers, he’d mainly read what his teachers assigned in class, and for the most part, these books did not connect much to what was going on in his life.

Ngofeen: Je vivais dans un quartier de Paris où vivaient beaucoup de gens différents, qui venaient de plein de milieux sociaux variés et de partout dans le monde. Mais la diversité des gens de ma communauté n’était pas vraiment représentée par les personnages qu’on voyait dans les livres d’école.

Ngofeen: Luc’s parents had both left homes far away to come work and live in Paris. His mother was from the French Caribbean Island of Martinique, and his father from the Republic of Cape Verde, an archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. For most of his life, Luc didn’t really notice that the characters he read about in books were nothing like him or his family. But when he turned 19, something changed.

Luc: En 2005, j’ai eu 19 ans, et cette année-là a été importante pour un jeune homme noir comme moi. C’était difficile de comprendre ce qui se passait autour de moi, et je me suis vraiment posé des questions sur ma place dans la société.

Ngofeen: 2005 was a difficult year. In August, a building in Luc’s neighborhood where many African immigrant families lived caught fire, and 17 people — a majority of them children — died. At the same time, Hurricane Katrina had devastated New Orleans in the United States, especially its Black communities. To Luc these events were connected. He believed each country’s governments should have done more to help.

Luc: Cette année-là, beaucoup de tragédies ont changé ma façon de voir le monde. Autour de moi, j’ai vu des personnes noires faire face à des catastrophes. C’était comme si leurs gouvernements les avaient abandonnées.

Ngofeen: Just a few months later, the news reported that 2 teenage boys from immigrant families had died while being chased by the French police. Over the next few days, several low-income neighborhoods outside of Paris, what the French call les banlieues, erupted in protest. In response, the government established a curfew, un couvre-feu.

Luc: Le gouvernement a établi un couvre-feu pendant trois semaines. J’ai vu des jeunes de mon âge faire face à la police. C’était violent. Et je me demandais comment c’était possible.

Ngofeen: Luc wanted to understand what was happening to his community, and why so many young black and brown men were taking to the streets. He started online, but quickly became suspicious of conflicting sources of information that he found on the Internet. That’s when he went looking for books.

Luc: J’avais besoin d'informations. J’ai compris que la meilleure façon de comprendre mon environnement, c’était de lire des livres. Les livres sont des sources plus sûres, et on y trouve des informations plus sérieuses que sur Internet. Un livre, on sait qui l’a écrit, où il a été imprimé et qui l’a publié.

Ngofeen: Luc stepped inside a library, and found himself drawn to books by French authors from the 1930’s who talked about what they called “la négritude,” Black identity. Luc devoured the books of Aimé Césaire, a former French statesman from Martinique, and Léopold Senghor, the former president of Senegal.

Luc: Je lisais ces livres sur la négritude. Je voyais des livres qui parlaient de gens comme moi et qui avaient les mêmes questions que moi. Ils parlaient du racisme, des conséquences de la migration et de la colonisation sur les gens qui vivent ça.

Ngofeen: As Luc read books about African Art, and the impact of colonization, he felt like he was assembling the pieces of a puzzle.

Luc: Je lisais des livres sur les pays d’origine de mes parents. Ils venaient tous les deux d’anciennes colonies occidentales. Grâce aux livres que je lisais, je comprenais beaucoup de choses.

Ngofeen: Luc also turned to literature by Black Americans. When he read a collection of Malcolm X’s public speeches, it felt like a slap in the face, une gifle.

Luc: J’ai eu l'impression de recevoir une gifle. Pour moi, la condition noire que Malcolm X décrivait dans les années 60 ressemblait beaucoup à la situation que j’observais en France.

Ngofeen: The experience of reading all these books by Black authors in the wake of the 2005 protests was life-changing for Luc. Over the next ten years, he became a dad, he moved to the city of Saint-Denis, and he started working as a maintenance technician in prestigious hotels. But on the side, he always had a secret life. He was a book advocate.

Luc: J'avais commencé ma propre chaîne YouTube. Je présentais des petites critiques littéraires. Je parlais des livres que j’aimais et que je trouvais intéressants. C’était des critiques très courtes, mais très réfléchies.

Ngofeen: On his YouTube channel, Luc picked books that resonated with his own life, books he’d never had the chance to read growing up. Books that talked about the lives of working-class people, people of color, children of immigrants.

Luc: C’est important de trouver des livres écrits par des gens qui nous ressemblent, qui ont vécu une vie similaire à celle de nos parents, de nos grands-parents, de nos arrière-grands-parents… Pour pouvoir construire sa vie, c’est important de comprendre d’où l’on vient.

Ngofeen: These books talked about the types of people Luc saw every day on his commute from Saint-Denis to Paris. Twice a day he would step onto the square in front of the train station, le parvis de la gare. Each time, he marveled at the sights and sounds around him.

Luc: Saint-Denis est une ville jeune, très populaire et pleine de vie. C’est aussi une ville pauvre, où toutes les cultures se mélangent. Des gens de plus d’une centaine de nationalités différentes habitent ici. Plus de 90 000 personnes passent devant la gare tous les jours. Quand on ne connaît pas cet endroit, on peut vite être intimidé par le bruit et le désordre.

Ngofeen: Every time Luc stepped onto this chaotic square, he admired people’s resourcefulness. Some sold odds and ends, others had even turned shopping carts into DIY food trucks…

Luc: À Saint-Denis, je voyais que pour beaucoup de gens, lire n’était pas la priorité. Ils devaient d’abord mettre de la nourriture sur la table. Et puis, il ne faut pas oublier qu’à Saint-Denis, il n'y avait qu’une seule librairie.

Ngofeen: Luc wanted to make sure his neighbors and fellow commuters had access to books… Books that talked about their own experiences. But he knew how hard it could be to carve out the time to read, or even figure out what books to read. So he dreamed of bringing the books to his community, right there on le parvis de la gare.

Luc: Quand je disais aux gens que je voulais vendre des livres sur le parvis de la gare, ils riaient. Mais pour moi, cette idée était logique. Le parvis était un lieu de rencontres. C’était l’endroit parfait pour réunir les gens.

Ngofeen: So, in May 2019, Luc went to Saint-Denis’s only bookstore, called Folies d’encres, Mad Inks. He went to talk to the bookstore owner, la libraire. And he asked her to train him to open his own bookstore in Saint Denis.

Luc: La libraire s’appelait Sylvie. Je lui ai dit : « Moi aussi je veux devenir libraire. Je n’ai pas d’expérience dans les métiers du livre, mais je suis motivé, et prêt à apprendre. » Elle a tout de suite accepté de m'aider.

Ngofeen: Sylvie told Luc that, for the last 20 years, she had been the only bookseller in Saint-Denis. It was about time for someone new to give the city a fresh take on books. So she took him under her wing. Throughout that spring, Luc trained in the craft of bookselling.

Luc: J’ai tout fait dans la librairie. J’ai porté plein de cartons remplis de livres, je les ai organisés sur les étagères, je me suis occupé des clients, et j’ai passé des commandes. J’aimais rencontrer et conseiller les habitants du quartier.

Ngofeen: Luc was very happy to gain some experience, but to him, the bookstore’s clientele wasn’t the people he hoped to reach. He kept thinking of le parvis de la gare Saint-Denis. That’s where he really wanted to sell books. There he imagined selling books to working-class customers, people with busy schedules, who didn’t have the opportunity to stop by a bookstore like Follie d'encres. So he went to talk to Sylvie.

Luc: C’était une idée un peu folle. Mais je voulais que tout le monde ait accès aux livres, même les gens qui ne sont pas habitués à entrer dans une librairie. Alors j'ai décidé d’aller sur le parvis de la gare pour essayer de vendre des livres.

Ngofeen: In summer 2019, Luc launched his own bookstore on le parvis de la gare Saint-Denis. He got permission from the mayor’s office to set up a small book stand, une librairie de rue, and Sylvie, his boss at Folies d’encres, agreed to help him and provide him with books.

Luc: Je suis allé sur le parvis de la gare avec mon stock de livres à vendre. J’ai installé une table, puis je l’ai recouverte d’un beau tissu africain pour mieux présenter les livres.

Ngofeen: It was a gorgeous day when Luc first set up his bookstand, but he was nervous.

Luc: Le premier jour, j’étais nerveux. J’avais peur d’avoir l’air ridicule. Je voulais que les gens remarquent mon stand. Je ne pensais pas que je réussirais à vendre un livre ce jour-là.

Ngofeen: When Luc arrived at le parvis, he realized a carnival was taking place that day. The square was now even more crowded than usual, with people singing, dancing and performing. Undaunted, Luc set up his table by the side of the station, in the shade.

Luc: Avec soin, j’ai sorti les livres de leurs cartons. Il y avait des livres pour enfants, des bandes dessinées et des romans. Certains livres étaient des best-sellers, des critiques sociales, d’autres parlaient de féminisme ou des cultures africaines.

Ngofeen: The carnival gave people an excuse to come to Luc’s book stand. Some even thought Luc was part of the festivities.

Luc: Certains étaient curieux et s’arrêtaient devant mon stand… Ils me posaient des questions et voulaient savoir ce que je faisais là. Ils me demandaient : « Tu vends des livres ici ? Devant les vendeurs de viande grillée ? » Quelle idée étrange !

Ngofeen: That afternoon, Luc sold some books, quite a lot actually. He felt that his crazy idea might work. So he returned the next day. And the next. Soon he set up a schedule.

Luc: J’ai installé mon stand tous les mercredis, vendredis et samedis après-midi. Je vendais une douzaine de livres par jour. Ce n’était pas énorme, mais c’était un bon début.

Ngofeen: Over the summer, Luc became a fixture at the station. He was the guy who sold books…next to the guy who sold meat skewers. Everybody supported him. Sylvie helped him order books, a local community center gave him a space to store them, and his social media followers came to meet him in person on the square.

Luc: Je travaillais dehors. À cause de la météo, ce n’était pas facile tous les jours. Une fois l’été fini, j’ai dû faire face à la pluie et au froid. Mais j’ai eu envie de continuer parce que c’était important pour moi et pour les gens. J’essayais d’ouvrir un dialogue avec eux.

Ngofeen: There was one customer Luc saw every day, a security guard working for the railway company, la SNCF.

Luc: Depuis le premier jour, cet agent de sécurité de la SNCF n’a pas arrêté de m’observer. Puis un jour, il est venu me voir. Il m’a dit qu’il se demandait combien de temps j’allais rester. On a parlé et il m’a raconté son histoire.

Ngofeen: The security guard told Luc he was from Ivory Coast and that he had three daughters. That got Luc thinking. He thought he had the perfect book for the security guard’s kids, a comic book that told the story of a little girl named Akissi, who lived in Ivory Coast.

Luc: C’était ce genre de personnes que je voulais toucher. Je voulais leur proposer des livres qui parlent de leurs histoires, pour qu’ils puissent partager ces livres et parler de leurs vies.

Ngofeen: Luc advised the security guard to set up a reading area in his home, where the girls could keep their books and read. The security guard bought several comics for his daughters. He told Luc they were thrilled.

Luc: J’étais très content. Dans ma librairie, j’essayais d’avoir des livres qui représentaient les histoires culturelles et personnelles des habitants de mon quartier. Comme ça, ils pouvaient s’identifier aux personnages et se sentir moins ignorés.

Ngofeen: Luc felt his concept of a bookstore on le parvis was really paying off. He was reaching the people he’d always hoped to reach, and sharing books filled with characters who resembled the people in his community. So he decided to give his books a more permanent home, by trading his open-air book stand for a building with four walls. His wild idea was to make a bookstore out of a shipping container, un container.

Luc: J’ai eu l’idée d’ouvrir une librairie dans un container. Comme ça, je pourrais rester sur le parvis même en hiver, même sous la pluie.

Ngofeen: The city of Saint-Denis gave Luc the permission to set up the container right there, on the square! He applied for a couple grants, and he launched a crowdsourcing campaign. He managed to raise 16,000 euros, and in September 2020, Luc officially opened his new, permanent bookstore on le parvis de la gare Saint-Denis.

Luc: J’ai décoré toute la librairie avec du bois. Je voulais un lieu accueillant, où les gens se sentent bien. J’avais hâte de revoir mes clients et de continuer à partager avec eux la magie des livres.

Ngofeen: After sharing his time between Folies d’encres and his librairie de rue, Luc now dedicates himself full-time to his own bookstore. He calls it Dealer de Livres, Book Dealer. He is grateful to pursue his dream, thanks to the city of Saint-Denis.

This story was produced by Estelle Ndjandjo, an audio producer based in Paris, France.

We'd love to know what you thought of this episode! You can write us an email at podcast@duolingo.com and call and leave us a voicemail or audio message on WhatsApp, at +1-703-953-93-69. Don’t forget to say your name and where you’re from!

If you liked this story, please share it! You can find the audio and a transcript of each episode at podcast.duolingo.com. You can also follow us on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite listening app, so you never miss an episode.

With over 500 million users, Duolingo is the world's leading language learning platform, and the most downloaded education app in the world. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun and available to everyone. To join, download the app today, or find out more at duolingo.com.

The Duolingo French podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media. I’m your host, Ngofeen Mputubwele, à la prochaine !

Credits

This episode was produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media.