France has around 3,500 independent bookshops. Britain, similar in population, has roughly 1,063. The USA, with five times France's population, has around 2,500.

France has approximately as many independent bookshops as Britain and America combined.

And the number is rising.

There's a law behind this — and a harder question it gave bookshops the space to ask: what does a librairie [bookshop] have to become, right now, to genuinely justify its existence?

Two-part series, exclusively for Annual Subscribers and Mighty Supporters:

Part One:

Part Two: