The weekend of September 1-3 was a beautiful, sunny one on the shores of the lake at Morges. And just as well, since the 14th edition of the LE LIVRE SUR LES QUAIS book festival took place on these shores. And this year, for the first time, Harsch was one of their partners.

A tempting program

With more than 180 authors, the festival welcomed not only distinguished guests from the world of French and foreign literature, but also new discoveries. In all, over 150 events were offered to the public, including readings, workshops, activities for young people and other surprises.

Chaired by Marie-Hélène Lafon, the literary salon welcomed a wide range of authors to Morges, including Marie Darrieussecq, Bruno Pellegrino, Chloé Delaume and Lionel Duroy, Silvia Ricci Lempen, Serge Joncour, Agnès Ledig, Luc Lang, Marie Laberge, Bernard Minier, Sylvain Prudhomme, Christine Ockrent, Ségolène Royal, André Ourednik, Amélie Nothomb, Daniel de Roulet and Metin Arditi and Ariane Chemin. It was also an opportunity to discover rare foreign authors such as Bernardine Evaristo, Sarah Hall and Gouzel Iakhina, not forgetting the delegation of Romanian writers who took part in numerous events for the first time.

Harsch and Le Livre sur les quais invent a new concept

With over 40,000 visitors, the festival was once again a great success. And all these people had to be able to sit quietly in the shade of an umbrella, perhaps with a book in their hands, provided by Le Livre sur les quais or by a visitor themselves. For the first year, and its first partnership with the festival, Harsch recycled its art transport crates to create “Caisses à lire”. The principle was simple: anyone could bring in books they wanted to donate, place them on their reading crates or under the benches built for the occasion, and help themselves to other books donated by other festival-goers or the festival itself.

The result: tranquillity, rest, reading in the shade, exchanges, conviviality… all positive points.

Even for kids

And it was during the construction of these benches and reading crates that one of the festival team members came up with a brilliant idea: why not make reading crates for children? The crates are turned upside down, shelves are created, a few cushions are put in place, and the youngest readers can slip into these crates, as if in a tree house, and discover new stories as thrilling as they are funny, terrifying as they are sad.

Recycling has become the norm these days, and there’s always something we no longer need that can be used by someone else or have a new purpose. We thank the festival and its team for these fruitful exchanges, and wish them all the best, and even better, for 2024!

And if you’ve got novels, short stories, comics, newspapers or encyclopedias to move, you know where to turn!

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