It is my idea of the perfect bookstore, despite being so well-visited. It gives me the same feeling that I get when I visit the Strand in NYC - this is a bookstore for people who LOVE books. We spent quite a lot of time here on a couple of occasions, as my family is comprised of people who not only like books, but we love pretty versions of books...
The store was 3 blocks from our hotel. The first night we arrived in Paris we walked down here, en route to finding our first dinner spot. It was quite magical for me.
It was also quintessentially Paris for me. On the 2nd floor there is a piano in one of the rooms, and there was a young man playing Bach. Oh my!
As I walked up the narrow stairs, there was wallpaper depicting THE authors of the lost generation:
Don't ask why these photos are sideways - despite my best efforts, they WANT to be sideways! I believe this is the ghost of Burroughs at work...
Out front, an artist was painting the shop:
He was an American from somewhere in NewYork and was very friendly.
What did I buy?
Well we all bought quite a bit, but my favourite was not French at all, but a Bloomsbury treasure:
The Hyde Park Gate News, the published version of the in-house newspaper created by Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell and their brother Thoby Stephens. I have read excerpts of this before, but what a treat that it has been published in its entirety!
You can buy yours here. I am just pouring through this now and it is great fun! I am a huge Bloomsbury fanatic, so that was a real treat!
I know - Shakespeare and Co. is now a tourist destination. I don't care. It is a bookstore, and a good one at that, and I am totally besotted with good bookstores!!!
Have a wonderful day!
