Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5292 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 1 of 10 03 May 2011 at 8:27am | IP Logged |
I will soon be going to Brussels, and I wondered if anyone knew of a good bookstore for foreign language books, or even films?
In Paris we have Gibert Jeune at the Place St. Michel in the Latin Quarters, and in Oslo we have Nordli in the University Street, but I have no idea where to search in Brussels. Any ideas?
Oh, and please forgive me if I have posted this in the wrong room - I just couldn't find anywhere that fitted.
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Sabrina VG Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5169 days ago 37 posts - 41 votes Speaks: Dutch, Flemish*, English, German, French Studies: Swedish, Welsh
| Message 2 of 10 04 May 2011 at 4:13pm | IP Logged |
Hi Solfrid,
I'm from Belgium but I wouldn't really know any specific bookshops which specialise in language books. I always buy mine over the internet.
I think your best option would be to go to one of the larger bookstores in Belgium such as FNAC or Standaard Boekhandel and see if you can find something there. FNAC also has a very large selection of DVD's available.
Enjoy Brussels!!
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blauw Tetraglot Groupie Belgium Joined 5330 days ago 46 posts - 111 votes Speaks: English, Flemish*, French, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 3 of 10 05 May 2011 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
Try the neighborhood where the European Parliament is located. One bookshop I know of is Orpheu, a Portuguese book shop located at 43 Willem de Zwijgerstraat (rue du Taciturne) in Brussels. I hear there are many more in that area.
Edited by blauw on 05 May 2011 at 11:14pm
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cezah Newbie Belgium Joined 5847 days ago 19 posts - 21 votes Studies: French, Italian
| Message 4 of 10 15 September 2011 at 11:35pm | IP Logged |
FNAC is good it has a few languages. French and Dutch in all the bookstores naturally, there is also a really nice little Italian bookshop that is also a cafe and social centre for Italians called Piola Libri in Rue Franklin near the Commission buildings http://www.piolalibri.be/en_home.php.
Waterstones, the English book shop, is in Rue Ansplach near Place Rogier next to a strip club, they do boxes of proper tea there as well, none of that yellow label muck, oh and Marmite and other essentials like Brown Sauce. Twice the price mind.
Edited by cezah on 15 September 2011 at 11:37pm
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numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6741 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin
| Message 5 of 10 16 September 2011 at 2:00pm | IP Logged |
I'm sure this is nothing new to most, but last week I was walking around in the center of
Brussels and I didn't actually spot any bookstores. Not such a common thing evidently.
But I did find a really good one eventually, a Fnac in fact. It's at the top floor of a
mall on this long shopping alley that goes roughly from the Grand Place towards Brux
Nord. Apart from French they have a decent section for Dutch books and also some cases of
Italian and Spanish. But what should be most enticing is the biggest collection of
language learning materials I've seen so far, many many book cases of it. Assimil seems
to be going at the rate set by the publisher, but at least you can browse a whole host of
them.
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blauw Tetraglot Groupie Belgium Joined 5330 days ago 46 posts - 111 votes Speaks: English, Flemish*, French, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 6 of 10 02 April 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
numerodix wrote:
I'm sure this is nothing new to most, but last week I was walking around in the center of Brussels and I didn't actually spot any bookstores. Not such a common thing evidently. |
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I actually noticed this, too, when I went to the French-speaking part of the country a few months ago specifically to find a bookshop, and it turned out not to be a bookshop at all. Apparently, in the French-speaking part of the country (which includes Brussels), they don't so much have bookshops as news agents' where you can also order books. When they say "librairie," this is what they mean.
In Flanders, though, we have bookshops like you do in America, where you can browse (though they never offer coffee). You'll find at least a Standaard Boekhandel in every small city. My favourite bookshop is Deslegte in Ghent, a second-hand bookshop where you can find all the major European languages. They also sell language learning materials very cheaply.
ETA: I'm sorry, I forgot to check the original posting date before replying. Solfrid Cristin, I hope you had a wonderful time in Belgium!
Edited by blauw on 02 April 2012 at 7:15pm
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Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4626 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali
| Message 7 of 10 03 April 2012 at 1:31am | IP Logged |
http://www.proxis.be
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Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4597 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian
| Message 8 of 10 03 April 2012 at 9:44am | IP Logged |
Hei Solfrid,
I used to live in Brussels many years ago, and I often went to a Spanish bookshop called "Punto y coma", in Rue Stevin (close to the Berlaymont building). I just checked on the internet and it still exists (www.puntoycoma.be)
So if you are looking for anything in Spanish, it is a the place to go.
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