"Since I'm not going away on holiday, this is my treat every afternoon," she said, before diving back into a detective novel. Etretat is one of 12 local resorts where authorities have set up library beach-huts this summer. Open from July 7 until August 26, each of the wooden huts has been filled with 1,000 books. Normandy launched its "Read At The Beach" scheme in 2005 with three huts and by last year was welcoming more than 38,000 bookworms along this stretch of the coast. The idea has since taken off elsewhere in France, with the Herault region in the south attracting 21,000 readers to its own beach huts last year.

Source: Sunday Times July 30, 2018 03:22 UTC