As though strolling the boulevards of Versailles, Joseph Plauzoles would take his early morning promenade around Rancho Park in West Los Angeles. As the 89-year-old Frenchman turned the corner onto Westwood Boulevard, he delighted in the approaching view: his bookstore.
Plauzoles passed away several years ago, said his son Lucien, thankful that his father isn't here to see La Cite, the city's only French bookstore, about to go out of business after 52 years.
Now, the wooden shelves are mostly bare, magazine stands are empty and a box overflows with Eiffel Tower pencil sharpeners slashed to $1.98. Lucien has worked 69 straight days, archiving, packing and frantically trying to find a place for all the unsold books that will be homeless after Wednesday.
Although Lucien Plauzoles is sorry to see his father's dream of keeping alive a bit of French culture come to an end, "It served its purpose," he said Saturday. "It's gone its course."
So far, Plauzoles has been able to keep his emotions at bay by staying busy. He hasn't thought about what he's going to do next or how he will feel after the doors shut for good. He's 54, and the business has spanned his entire life.
"I'm married to it," he said. "Though my wife argues that it's more like a mistress."
For Plauzoles, his father and the city's French community, the bookstore was a "little bit of home," said one rueful patron, who has depended on the store for decades.
A remnant of what it once was, the bookstore has walls lined with tall cases that used to spill over with thousands of books. Hardback editions of French comics like Asterix and Tintin now barely fill the wooden stands. Posters of 1970s movies, gallery announcements and even a print of the Michelin man riding over glass still line the ceiling. Against one musty corner is the cash register, where a French-speaking employee stood ready.
"I only found out they were closing when I saw the signs on the window," said Tony Weiss, who moved to Los Angeles from Paris five years ago. "It's like France in there. It's like family. A place like Borders . . . it's a factory."
Erik Laykin has been coming to the bookstore for 10 years to buy film and tour guides that he couldn't find anywhere else.
"It's the only bookstore where you can find all of this on a daily basis," he said.
Other customers remember coming to the bookstore to buy obscure literature, rare books of poetry or French newspapers.
