Emanuel M.
Yelp
I give Albertine 5 stars. Unquestionably a beautiful bookstore, with nice personnel. However, there is a caveat to my rating based upon my 55 years of selling French books as the owner of the Librairie de France in Rockefeller Center. The French Cultural Counselor openly proclaims---and I quote---"sales aren't the primary goal. The project has been underwritten by sponsors including LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Total Corporate Foundation and Air France. There is no rent, which is a big New York problem," he said. "We have the freedom to show the books we love."
Can you imagine, considering the enormous expense of this enterprise, far from any business district, what could have been accomplished if the same financing were given to the internationally-reputed Librairie de France at Rockefeller Center for almost a century."? Difficult to understand. Moreover, how can any small business possibly compete with a French-government-financed-institution who pays no rent, no taxes and sells books at a profit, underwritten by the likes of billion dollar conglomerates and French charitable organizations.
Our internationally-reputed French bookstore carried on in Rockefeller Center for 74 years, closing with a staggering rent of $1,000 per day. Pleas for assistance to the French government fell on deaf ears. An editorial in the Nouvel Observateur proclaimed " Emanuel Molho alerted the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France, who did not deign to reply. No one moved. No help was offered." Le pays de Montaigne regarde mourir, dans l'indifférence, l'unique vitrine, là-bas, de son génie et de son humanisme. A croire qu'ils sont bel et bien révolus.
Too late to do anything about it now, and it does not take away from the beautiful Albertine, but as a very disappointed francophile who has devoted his entire business career to French books, I had to vent.