My FIL has started reading French novels again. He used to work in France a lot and would buy them while there, but he retired about 25 years ago and has recently reread his entire back catalogue.

I have just reread Papillon and thought I could buy him that plus a few other ‘classics’ for Christmas, but the few that I can find on eBay are being sold at a huge markup (£30.00 + postage for 6 books including 3 rubbish children’s hungry catapults style books for example).

Can anyone point me in the right direction for sourcing secondhand French books? Is there a French MusicMagpie equivalent for example?

Secondary question; Can anyone recommend some good French crime/Thriller writers that have a big back catalogue that might be ‘cheap as chips’ – think of someone like “Dick Francis” in the UK.

Thanks

World of books (wob.com) but I can’t get the French site from UK on my phone.

Have you tried https://www.abebooks.co.uk/?

booze book cruise?

ask @edukator for a trip to a second hand book shop

The ones I can see on Ebay are about 5-6 quid. Are they the English versions? Maybe ebay.fr is worth a search.. or Momox -a German seller I’ve bought a few things from, have Papillion (French version going by the cover) for £3.90…

Ebay are rubbish in France, mostly uk sellers! Try leboncoin.fr, they have about a million listings for books, from €1 up. Look under Loisirs>Livres. No idea how much the postage is, but I’ve sent paperbacks to the uk for about €2-3 and no problems.

Mrs, buys on amazon. They also sell used books, you might get lucky.

3 rubbish children’s hungry catapults style

They don’t sound rubbish: 3 fearsome war machines thirsting for blood 🙂

Take a trip to Paris?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouquinistes

Not sure how shipping will work out, but I’ve used https://www.momox-shop.fr/

Hate to say it but Amazon. They’re reasonably priced and deliver in the UK, I’ve just tested the French site for an old Boris Vian classic and UK delivery was an option.

Crime/thriller often turn out to be translations from English, so check out your favourite authors (lots of Dick Francis at about 5e). Have a look at the Goncourt winners, usually worth a read. The last book I read was the 2020 winner Anomolie, pretty good for a Matrix rip off.

I buy French books via Amazon UK, can’t comment on the range, but they’ve had everything I’ve been looking for so far. Not second hand though.