Bibliothèque

Not far from the cathedral de Notre Dame is the municipal library of Reims, titled simply ‘Bibliotheque’. It’s a splendid looking building, built in the 1920’s after being funded by Andrew Carnegie from his post war recovery project. Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland, and moved to the United States in 1848. He became a very successful businessman and built a colossal empire which he sold at the age of 66, and became the richest man in the world. He used a large part of his fortune to fund philanthropic projects like the Bibliothèque. The wonderful thing is that the public library is still accessible by all today. It was an absolute joy to be able to go in and experience the architecture within the tranquility of the library.

Inside the foyer is a rather large, angular, glass ceiling light, which dominates the space. In contrast, the ceiling itself is a cascade of circles, or could they be bubbles?

Around the marble walls there are a series of small mosaics, depicting artisans at work.

At the far corner of the foyer, next to the reception desk, is the catalogue room, which is full of tiny wooden drawers of small white cards, some hand written, some typed, but all cataloguing the huge collection of books and historical papers.

On the opposite side of the foyer is the entrance to the actual library. It was full of people of all ages, studying or reading some of the many reference books and journals from the collection.

What caught my eye though was the colourful stained glass window on the ceiling of the library, created by Jacques Gruber, a celebrated Parisian artisan.

I loved just wandering around, peering at the books, and soaking up the atmosphere.