Kathy Hamilton Possibly the most famous bookshop in Paris. A visit to Shakespeare & Company on Paris’ famous Left Bank is an absolute must for bibliophiles. Overlooking Notre Dame Cathedral and nestled next to Paris’ oldest tree, this bookshop has been welcoming ‘tumbleweeds’ for over 100 years.
On my first trip to Paris, I had one destination in mind. Yep, you guessed it. I wanted to visit Shakespeare and Company! It sounds strange to suggest visiting an English bookshop when you’re in Paris. But this one is special. It’s the bookshop that published Ulysses by James Joyce, and has welcomed practically every author you’ve heard of in the twentieth and twenty first century through its doors. It’s hard to explain the appeal of bookshops to none book lovers, but trust me you won’t regret your visit.
How to Find Shakespeare & Company in Paris
You may be surprised that a bookshop that’s situated in the heart of Paris, overlooking Notre Dame Cathedral is easy to miss. But it’s true. Half hidden by hedges, Shakespeare & Company feels like a nestled away secret.
The map above will help you locate the shop. But if you’re really struggling, aim for Notre Dame Cathedral (you can’t miss it!) and then cross over the river to the Left Bank. Once there you’ll feel the bustling city slip away, replaced with a literary haven. Book lovers bustle outside and you may even come across a poet or two offering to write a verse for you on the spot.
Planning Your Visit to Shakespeare & Company
Part shop, part venue, when you visit Shakespeare and Company it feels like walking into Aladdin’s cave of treasure. Books, floor to ceiling, on every topic you can think of line the walls. All around, bibliophiles from across the globe mill, looking for that special title to take home.
Upstairs is an amazing free library of antique and rare books. Here guests are invited to sit awhile, or even to lodge in one of its writer’s rooms. These visitors are affectionately known has “tumbleweeds” can stay free of charge. As long as they promise to work in the shop each day, complete a one page autobiography, and finally ‘read a book per day’. If you’re lucky you can even time your visit to coincide with one of their varied author events .
Of course, the most obvious reason to visit Shakespeare & Company is to get yourself a souvenir book. You won’t be disappointed by the selection on offer! In fact, it may be hard to narrow one down. Each book purchased in the shop is stamped with a special logo, a special reminder of your visit. This guide to the best books set in Paris may offer some inspiration.
Grab a Book and Stay a While
After you’ve chosen your books a visit to the café stuck to the side of the bookshop is a must. If you’re here in springtime, you can sip your coffee in the shade of beautiful cherry blossoms. Although it’s beautiful to sit here all year round too.
The café offers a perfect follow up for literary lovers. Featuring cakes such as “George’s lemon pie”, famously named after George Whitman (founder of the current incarnation of Shakespeare and Company) who supposedly said “There’s only one way to make a good lemon pie, you know”. I’m not sure about that, but the pie here was delicious!
It’s worth noting that due to the immense popularity of Shakespeare and Company and the small nature of the café, it can be hard to find a seat. If you really want to sit inside, it might be best to plan your trip early in the day or come prepared to wait a little while.
The History of Shakespeare & Company: A Century of English Books in Paris
‘Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise’
When you visit Shakespeare & Company today, you’re actually in it’s third location. The bookshop’s founder, Sylvia Beach, opened the original shop on at 8 rue Dupuytren in 1919. Then, in 1922 she moved again, to the nearby Rue de l’Odéon.
During this period, Paris was a mecca for writers and artists. And Shakespeare & Company attracted all the great expat writers of the time. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Pound, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy. All eventually turned the shop into their home away from home.
Despite becoming a thriving part of Paris’s literary society, Sylvia Beach was forced to close the shop in 1941, during the Nazi Occuption. Legend has it that one day that December, a Nazi officer entered her store. He demanded Beach’s last copy of Finnegans Wake but Beach declined to sell him the book. Despite his threats, Beach held firm and decided it would be better to close the shop for good than sell books to Nazis.
But for the efforts of one man, Shakespeare and Company would have then been closed forever. In April 1964—on the four-hundredth anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth, George Whitman rejuvenated Shakespeare and Company. Moving it to its present location: 37 Rue de la Bûcherie.
George Whitman endeavoured to carry on the spirit of Beach’s shop and in the following decades it emerged again as the centre of expat literary life. Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Anaïs Nin and many more helped to cement Shakespeare and Company’s fame.
