Femke van Seijen: “Nowhere else in the region will you find a place like this.”
Something new has recently opened in the heart of Franeker: De Grote Beer bookshop. Behind the counter is Femke (27), a young entrepreneur with a background in linguistics, multilingualism and a great love of stories. “It’s always been a bit of a dream in the back of my mind to start a bookshop,” she says. With a temporary contract in academia under her belt, she began to think things through. “That’s when I really looked around and asked myself: which direction do I actually want to go in? What would I enjoy doing? And all options were open.”
Femke grew up in Dokkum and studied in Groningen and Utrecht. After studying French, Linguistics and, later, European Languages and Cultures, she went on to do a Master’s in Multilingualism and Language Acquisition, which included an internship – and later a job – at the Fryske Akademy in Leeuwarden. Yet the dream of opening her own bookshop kept resurfacing.
“My parents moved to a small village not far from here a few years ago. After that, we’d pop into Franeker every now and then to have a look around and do a bit of shopping... It reminded me a bit of Dokkum, where I grew up, so it really appealed to me. Once I’d started planning my bookshop, I heard that there wasn’t a single bookshop left here in Franeker. And that’s when it started to dawn on me: hey, maybe this is the ideal spot.”
And that turned out to be exactly the case. Through the city centre manager, Femke heard that a suitable premises was due to become available on Dijkstraat, right in the heart of the city centre. “The moment I heard that and started walking around here, I knew straight away that this was the ideal premises. It even looks like a bookshop from the outside.”
"A place where people don’t just buy books, but can also simply take a moment to relax."
Femke Owner of De Grote Beer bookshop
Community
From that moment on, everything happened very quickly. She started working on her business plan in March this year, and by September the doors were open – less than nine months later! “It was a real slog, though,” she laughs. “I didn’t get the keys until mid-August. Luckily, friends, family and people from Franeker itself pitched in to help.”
Community and a sense of community mean a great deal to Femke. “It was all just ideas in my head. The fact that so many people were willing to pull together and were already prepared to help me right from the start is fantastic. And all because they were simply so excited about the prospect of having a bookshop in Franeker again … Yes, it’s really brilliant.”
She noticed that even the ‘competitors’ were willing to help and explore the possibilities for collaboration. That’s what community is all about: doing what needs to be done together, simply because that’s the natural thing to do.
A place full of stories
The shop itself embodies exactly what Femke wanted in a physical bookshop: a beautifully decorated, cosy space with wooden shelves full of stories. As soon as you walk in, you feel it straight away. Alongside a mix of children’s books, thrillers and fantasy, there is also space for books in the local dialect and English-language books that are popular in the online worlds of Booktok and Bookstagram. In this way, Femke also hopes to attract younger readers; not to order online, but to physically pick up and buy a book.
The name ‘De Grote Beer’ is a nod to the Eise Eisinga Planetarium, which is also located in Franeker. At the same time, ‘the Great Bear’ also refers to a major character in so many children’s books: a friendly figure who embodies safety, curiosity and adventure.
In the future, Femke would like to add a coffee corner overlooking the small courtyard garden. “So that people can sit here comfortably, have a cup of coffee, enjoy a treat and read a good book.” She hopes that De Grote Beer will become a place where people don’t just buy books, but also simply take a moment to relax.” And for all other Frisian start-ups, Femke has one more tip: “Start planning early, ask for as much help as possible, and don’t lose sight of your dream.”
Fancy finding out more about De Grote Beer bookshop?
De Grote Beer bookshop is located at 30 Dijkstraat in Franeker and can be found on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok under the name @boekwinkeldegrotebeer.
