Take out your paper and your pen! The Paris Book Festival, which will be held from April 12 to 14 at the ephemeral Grand Palais in Paris, offers all Molière language lovers a return to childhood. For one afternoon, 3,000 people are invited to a giant dictation on the Champ-de-Mars. Good or bad grade, the result this time will be without consequences. There will be no reward for the best, no reprimand for the worst. Driven by the values of Olympism, the event is intended to be festive for lovers of books and reading.
Friday April 12, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, participants will have 1 hour 20 minutes to complete their copy. In total, three dictations will be given from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. They were developed from texts by three contemporary authors: Agnès Martin-Lugand, David Foenkinos and Marc Levy. The three authors will be present to read their text three times.
One hundred days before the opening of the Olympic Games ceremony, the event hosted by journalist and novelist Rachid Santaki wanted to give a sporting dimension to the exercise. The texts were therefore chosen according to three themes taken from the Olympic motto in Latin: “Citius, Altius, Fortius”, in French: “Plus vite, plus haute, plus fort”. The Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games has therefore issued its “Cultural Olympiad” label.
Athlete Théo Curin, double silver medalist in swimming at the 2017 disabled sports world championship, will participate in the event as a representative of French athletes and will warm up the candidates before each event. At the end of the dictations, the text will be projected on a large screen and self-correction will be offered by Rachid Santaki. All participants will receive an original medal struck for the occasion.
Registrations are open and free on the online ticket office. The medal that each candidate will receive will allow them free entry to the ephemeral Grand Palais where the Paris Book Festival will take place.
