In Paris, English Bookshops Dwindle PARIS - Anglophone readers in Paris used to be spoiled for choice with close to a dozen well-stocked stores specializing in English-language books. But the numbers are dwindling fast. Brentano's, a fixture of the Avenue de l'Opéra for more than 100 years, closed in 2009; the owners said a big rent increase had made it impossible to continue. The store has reopened since then under new ownership, but with a greatly reduced selection of English-language books. Now two other fixtures of the Paris literary scene, The Village Voice Bookshop and The Red Wheelbarrow, are endangered. The Village Voice, in the Left Bank neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, has announced plans to shut down by the end of July, while The Red Wheelbarrow, on the Right Bank in the Marais, is up for sale. The owners of these shops give different reasons for their planned exits. Odile Hellier of The Village Voice, which opened in 1982, cited a drop in sales, caused by the growth of online bookshops like Amazon.com and increased sales of e-books and digital reading devices like the Kindle and the iPad. "The book is not the principal instrument for us to acquire and transfer knowledge anymore,"" she said. "When I tell my clients that we are closing, at first they say, "You can't do that to us. When you explain to them that everyone has an iPad, everyone has an iPhone, everyone has a tablet, they understand."" Demographic changes in the neighborhood have played a role, too, she added. Saint-Germain-des-Pres, once the neighborhood of Sartre, Gertrude Stein and Simone de Beauvoir, is now populated by consultants, marketing executives and fashionistas, who are more likely to browse through Barbara Bui or Le Bon Marché. "This used to be the intellectual magnet, the artistic magnet for people passing through Paris,"" she lamented. Now it's not anymore. We feel isolated."" Across the Seine, The Red Wheelbarrow has a "for sale" posted on its shopfront, but there is still a chance that the store could be saved, said Penelope Fletcher, the owner. Ms. Fletcher did not blame falling sales; she said they had held up well. She is moving back to Canada, where she grew up, for personal reasons. The Red Wheelbarrow specializes in children's books and other categories that have been less affected by the incursions of e-books and digital devices. "The rent is usually paid by Madame de Sevigne,"" Ms. Fletcher said jokingly, referring to the 17th-century noblewoman whose letters to her daughter are a fixture of the French literary canon. "People don't want to read Madame de Sevigne on a Kindle."" Even if The Red Wheelbarrow meets the rent, finding a buyer willing to maintain it as a bookstore has proved to be difficult. Ms. Fletcher said that since she quietly put the shop on the market last year she had received several inquiries, but currently the only interest is from people who want to use the location for a different kind of shop. "It's a dream for a lot of people to own a bookstore - that's the problem, it's a dream,"" she said. "The financial crisis has hurt us, insofar as people are too afraid to take the leap to buy a bookstore."" Ms. Fletcher said that she wanted to hold out for a buyer who would keep The Red Wheelbarrow open, but declined to say how long she was prepared to wait. After The Village Voice closes, and whatever the fate of The Red Wheelbarrow, there will still be several Paris outlets for English language books - in addition to Amazon or e-books, that is. Shakespeare and Company in the Latin Quarter, does a brisk trade in readings, signings and other events. On the Right Bank, there is Galignani, billed as the oldest English-language bookshop on the Continent, and W.H. Smith. Other English-language shops specialize in used books, Canadian books or other niches. Ms. Hellier at The Village Voice said that while she planned to quit the business of bookselling, she was not abandoning the world of books. She said she might take a turn as a writer. "After 30 years of reading, of meeting people, of having so many events, I really feel like writing the history of the Village Voice," she said. I owe that to the writers, to people who supported this place.