The library in Montpellier

With its large windows letting sunshine generously in, the Reading Room of the Public Library is a popular place in Montpellier. There you can keep up to date with the latest news from Istanbul or Clermont l’Hérault or, if you feel more like it, from London or Dublin. You can even dig yourself deep inside an article from Le Magazine Littéraire, if your French permits.

The Reading Room is on the ground floor of La Médiathèque Émile Zola. There is a sad lack of libraries in erudite Montpellier, but luckily we have a few Médiathèques… The difference between ”library” and ”médiathèque”? Search me. The later sounds more modern, I guess. And it does have, besides printed matter, also films and music to lend. Once you got your reader card (8 euros a year), you are free to borrow and even to manage your loans on the Internet.

La Médiathèque has several local branches, all of them named after famous writers. Victor Hugo, Federico García Lorca, Albert Camus and, yes, William Shakespeare. The branch where you can borrow films is not called François Truffaut as one might expect but Federico Fellini, Who said Frenchmen are chauvinists?

The main branch, Emile Zola, is quite centrallly located, in an imposing building from 2000 signed Paul Chemetov and Borja Huidobro. The architecture is somewhat chilly to my taste, but it sure works and it is nice to look at.

As much else in France, La Médiathèque is closed on Mondays so be sure to borrow all the volumes of Jean Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida you need on Sunday at the latest … Until recently, I would have said ”latest on Saturday” but now the library is open on Sundays (most of the year) after tough negotiations with the different unions.

This article is from the web site : http://montpellier-mediterranean.blogspot.com/ 

Link to the article : http://montpellier-mediterranean.blogspot.com/2010/09/la-mediatheque.html

Don’t hesitate to look at it !