 | If you need me, I’ll be in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. |
As you may know, I’ve gone back to school. Specifically, the University of Kent Paris School of Arts and Culture, where I’m working on a masters degree in creative writing. Libraries have always been my thing, and now I’ve got them in abundance.
At the University of Kent, we have a lot of library options. We have a campus library, and we have access to the American Library of Paris, continental Europe’s largest English-language library. There are beacoups of online resources through those libraries.
However, the coolest library by far is the Bibliothèque nationale de France, specifically the François Mitterand branch. Let me take you on a tour.
It’s a research library only, so you can’t check out books. There is no children’s section, no story time. But there is so much more.
Anybody age 16 and up can go in the above-ground floors, where there are reading rooms and events, but that’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is downstairs. Here’s what you do.
At the University of Kent, we have a lot of library options. We have a campus library, and we have access to the American Library of Paris, continental Europe’s largest English-language library. There are beacoups of online resources through those libraries.
However, the coolest library by far is the Bibliothèque nationale de France, specifically the François Mitterand branch. Let me take you on a tour.
It’s a research library only, so you can’t check out books. There is no children’s section, no story time. But there is so much more.
Anybody age 16 and up can go in the above-ground floors, where there are reading rooms and events, but that’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is downstairs. Here’s what you do.
 | Enter the building, going through security. |
You’ll need a library card, which you can only get if you’re studying for at least a master’s degree. If you bring your passport, a letter from your school, and thirty-five Euros, you can get a library card.
Don’t I look like a gopher in my photo? Coming up out of her hole?
Don’t I look like a gopher in my photo? Coming up out of her hole?
 |  |
Then you leave non-essentials at the coat check and they give you a clear plastic tote bag to put your essentials in.
 | This is my friend Vicki with her nifty tote bag. Garden to the left, reading rooms to the right. |
 | Scan your library card to go downstairs. Take this very long escalator. |
Use the computer to reserve a book and a desk if you didn’t do it at home. Scan your card again to go into the reading rooms. Go to the librarian, give her your card, and she/he will assign you a desk, asking if you want window, middle, or aisle.
One of the reading rooms.
Desks as far as the eye can see.
Librarians are helpful if you need them. Set up your area with all your stuff from your clear plastic tote bag, and enjoy the incredible focus which comes from the rigorous ordeal involved getting into this place. I banged out two assignments and a blog post before I needed coffee. Which, by the way, is convenient and affordable in the little cafe.
 | My snack. Pain au raisin and café crème, €3.25. That’s cheap for Paris. |
A word of caution: it’s very quiet in there. Do not wear clicky shoes or corduroy pants. Your stomach must not growl. Take an antihistamine if you’re drippy because your sniffling is going to draw judgement. That plastic tote bag is excruciatingly rattley-scrapy when you have to get your stuff out, so please do it as unobtrusively as possible. If you whisper to your friend, the guy at the next desk will whip his head around and glare you into repentance. Ask me how I know.
Still, I love it. I usually just want everybody to be quiet, and these people want it even worse than me.
Still, I love it. I usually just want everybody to be quiet, and these people want it even worse than me.
It’s like Scandanavian Gringotts.
If you ever need to do research in France, the Bibliothèque nationale de France is the place to do it.
You don’t see researching in France in your future?
Neither did I, my friend, neither did I.
You don’t see researching in France in your future?
Neither did I, my friend, neither did I.
