National Library of France
Updated on
Eric RENAUD
The National Library of France (BNF), named as such since 1994, is the national library of the French Republic. It contains the royal collections established since the end of the Middle Ages. Its activities are spread across seven sites, the main one being the library at the François-Mitterrand site, located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine.
In Tolbiac, the François-Mitterrand library, designed by Dominique Perrault, occupies a site of 7.5 hectares with a plaza of 60,000 m². It is characterized by four large angular towers of 79 m each, symbolically corresponding to four open books:
- tower of Times
- tower of Laws
- tower of Numbers
- tower of Letters.
From the quays, you can notably see the bateaux-mouches on the Seine passing by.