I was in France last month, and actually went to mail a book from Normandy to Paris. The "book rate" they were going to charge was 5 euros. The cost for me to send the package from German (International Rate!) was only 3.65 Euros. So I took it home and mailed it from there.
It seems like France is getting too expensive to mail books from at all. :-(
Robin, that would have been standard parcel rate. You can send an inland package (up to 250g) economy rate for 1.75€, but the post office here doesn't like economy rate post. You have to tell them that you know the system better than they do! My local post office used to refuse to accept my worldwide BM packages sent economy until I forced them to accept that the service existed and I was going to use it. On a more than usually cynical day I suspect that there's some sort of commission or points rate for letters that doesn't apply to economy rate post. My sorting office certainly has charts displayed showing the numbers of letters and parcels they handle, but there's no mention of any economy rate stuff... Economy rate parcel post disappeared a couple of years ago.
