An English bookshop is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Paris, but Shakespeare and Company is a Parisian institution. If you’re visiting Paris, you must take a trip to this famous English bookshop by the beautiful river Seine, with the banks of the river home to some of the most expensive homes and apartments in Paris.
Shakespeare and Company was opened in 1951 by George Whitman, an American living in Paris. The shop was originally called Le Mistral and Whitman’s vision was for the place to become the centre of a community, somewhere writers could meet and feel at home. Whitman let travelling writers sleep in the shop for the night, in exchange for helping out with cleaning or selling books.
When Whitman opened Le Mistral, he modelled it on another bookshop called Shakespeare and Company. This bookshop was founded in 1919 by Sylvia Bleach and in its heyday was a gathering place for famous English-speaking writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce – Ernest Hemingway mentions Sylvia and her store in his memoir ‘A Moveable Feast’. Eventually Sylvia Bleach told Whitman he could use the name ‘Shakespeare and Company’ for his shop and when she died she left a lot of books to Whitman’s store.
Shakespeare and Company indeed became the meeting place and ‘home away from home’ that Whitman envisioned. Since it opened in 1951, thousands of artists and writers have spent the night there. In 2002 Whitman passed on the management of the store to his daughter Sylvia. He died in 2011, but his dreams for the shop continue to be realised.
Today Shakespeare and Company host literary festivals, writer’s groups and free talks from famous authors. The building – once a 17th Century monastery – is still bursting with life, activity and of course, books. If you’re visiting Paris, Shakespeare and Company is the perfect place to while away a quiet afternoon. You’ll find it on the banks of the river, close to St Michel metro station. It’s open everyday from 10am to 11pm and the adjacent antiquarian bookshop is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm.
You can browse the thousands of books for sale downstairs, then walk up the spindly staircase and read antique books or if you’re lucky, there might be a talk going on from an author – Zadie Smith and Carol Ann Duffy have spoken there in the past. You never know what you’ll find which is what makes it the most charming and intriguing bookshops in Paris.
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