Sesame Bookstore offers 50,000 pounds of used books

For more than 60 years, the 34, cours de Chazelles has been home to a bookshop, which is now the oldest in the town. Sesame has been making money thanks to its second-hand books and the sympathy of Virginie Pidoux, the owner of the institution.

At 34, cours de Chazelles, in the shade of green screens, there has been a Sesame bookstore, thousands of books from floor to ceiling and a colourful bookshop since the 1950s.” Virginie Pidoux, the owner of the place, who lives upstairs, only needs a few steps to get to the bookshop.

Since its reopening in May, one thing has become clear: “I can’t complain,” she explains, “we’ve kindly made up for the two months of closure,” and even without the Inter-Celtic Festival: “There are a lot of tourists and I felt that people would like to get some fresh air and read. On average, with 100 sales a day and a regularly renewed stock of 50,000 books, “the bookstore is doing well,” as is the second-hand book market. Exporting on the Internet? Virginie Pidoux has thought about it but prefers to keep her business on a city scale.

A neighbourhood bookstore

During the confinement, after having sorted through her personal library, she offers free books in front of her bookstore. The operation was a success and little words were stuck on as a sign of thanks: “Someone even came to offer me a bouquet of flowers, that means a lot to me! “Between Sunday garage sales and donations from associations, the bookstore always tries to satisfy its customers: “We run right, left for them”.

Making his passion his profession

“What’s funny about the history of this bookstore is that no one has the same one,” laughs Virginie Pidoux, “People from Lorient come by, come to tell us a bit of their story,” a puzzle that dates back to the 1950s: the owner of a hardware store dies, his wife transforms it into the Terre Nouvelle bookstore and stationery store.Virginie Pidoux’s family arrived in Lorient 24 years ago and began to use the bookshop as avid readers. Roland Fiévez, then head of the bookshop that bears his name, is getting old and offers Virginie Pidoux to take over the bookshop.” And why not? “A project in Brazil comes in between, but the bookstore comes back as a matter of course.” “We had to get our foot in the door,” then Virginie Pidoux took over. More than a book in hand, each person leaves with the thunderous laughter of the owner in mind.