My daughter and I have been attending this book fair together nearly every year since we arrived in western Switzerland in 2003. It’s saying a lot about a book fair that can hold the attention of a 5-year-old. Now that she’s 11, her staying power outclasses mine, but that’s a happy problem!

The chasse à trésor (treasure hunt) — an excellent device for keeping kids interested — has a theme that’s both educational and fun, and perhaps more importantly, it takes kids on a route that visits every section of the fair. This works equally well for parents accompany parents. With map in hand, hunting for the clues and filling in the answers, and browsing the neighboring displays, is a pleasant way to navigate the fair. This year’s chasse theme was biodiversity. After completing the hunt, kids receive a book about biodiversity and were then invited to stick a paper flower (cut from recycled magazine pages) onto an enormous wall panel positioned near the fair’s exit. By the third day, the wall was filled with thousands of these flowers.

With nearly 800 exhibitors, ranging in size from small presses to big name publishers, this fair is wonderfully accessible and very popular. There were nearly 100,000 visitors during the five-day run. The emphasis is on French-language publishers, but there’s always a good showing from UK-based publishers. My favorite exhibit is the German company Taschen, which features large format art, architecture and design titles.

I was curious to see how the economic downturn would affect the ambience of the fair. My overall impression was one of quiet frugality. There wasn’t as much extravagance — fewer give-away items, smaller and simpler displays, less visual noise. The focus was definitely more on the books themselves.This felt more like a gain than a loss!

It’s interesting to see how French publishers handle book design. For fiction and most trade non-fiction, authors are prominently featured on the cover, which is typically dominated by an evocative author photo, and the author’s name is set in much larger type than the book’s title. There’s very much a series “look”  to these books, both for the cover and interior design. Clearly, it’s the author’s face and name that’s meant to grab a buyer’s attention the store, and not illustrative or provocative cover designs. Larger format titles — books about cooking, gardening, interior design, etcetera — follow similar standards as their American and British counterparts.

We spent a very happy three hours browsing, and managed to take home a bag satisfyingly-filled with bargain books.