Indeed, even in this cyberdominated world, and for those who like to read in English there’s no better place to go than the English American Library in Nice (www.nice-english-library.org), housed in the basement beneath Holy Trinity Church Hall. It’s by far the oldest institution serving the anglophone community on the Coast, tracing its history back over some 140 years (there’s an original notice from those early days still to be seen on the inside of the door of one of the cupboards!). It’s certainly the case that the library is insufficiently known to its intended public. Once discovered it remains a source of continuing pleasure and satisfaction.

One recent Sunday morning the EAL had an open house event which, by the way, featured some of the best finger food we’ve had in a long time (Roxane Bethany deserves a book token as a reward for her superb salmon mousse). President of the library Judit Kiraly made some points worth noting: “There really is a huge choice of reading available here – we’ve got some 26,000 books on open shelves plus DVDs and stocks of local press including the Reporter. We try to get in as many new titles as we can which seem likely to interest our members – and suggestions are always welcome. We’ve recently done a lot of renovation to make the place more user-friendly and we’ve launched a website where people can find out lots about the library. We also hope some of your readers will come and see for themselves. We’re open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 to 11 and from 3 to 5.”

From Riviera Reporter Issue 131: Feb/March 2009

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