The sleepy Ardennes village of Redu was almost dead when the bookseller Noël Anselot came up with a plan.
Inspired by the British book town in Hay-on-Wye, he persuaded a few Belgian book dealers to settle here back in 1984. Other dealers followed, snapping up an old schoolhouse, a huge barn and an abandoned snail farm. The world’s second book town was born.
The village, which has just 400 inhabitants, used to boast more than 20 specialised bookshops crammed with rare books, posters and prints. Locals used to joke that there were more bookshops than cows. The number has now dropped to about a dozen or so as the booksellers struggle to survive in the internet age.
But the book town in the Ardennes is far from dead. It also has several restaurants, cafés and B&Bs, along with a print shop and a farm where you can pick your own raspberries.
The bookstore La Reduiste is an inspiring new initiative. It occupies a handsome white villa that looks like it belongs in an English village. Here the owners have created a beautiful book-filled interior where they host readings, concerts and film screenings. They also rent out three B&B rooms where you can sleep among the old books.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
