The Most Famous Bookshop in Paris
Exploring Shakespeare and Company on the Left Bank
Shakespeare and Company stands out as the literary Mecca of the French capital, Paris, the City of Books just as much as the City of Lights. While there certainly are more interesting and unique book-related things to see in the city, none have quite the widespread reputation as this old, dingy-yet-bourgeoise bookshop situated under the shadow of what remains of the Notre Dame on the Left Bank.
As a man obsessed with the Lost Generation of 1920s Paris, I knew it was a place I had to go during my month-long in Paris. Yet for some reason I kept putting it off. Our first week came and went, then came the rain and then more rain and another two weeks down the drain. Then a trip to Brussels, then another quick jaunt to Amsterdam on a whim.
And then it almost didn’t happen.
On our first effort we got distracted by a chic dumpling restaurant in the 11th and then again by some happy hour wine before crossing the bridge to the Left Bank. By the time we arrived the sun had fully set and the doors were closed and locked. The workers left one by one from the back, winding down the endless Parisian side streets and we were left with no choice but to return to our attic apartment out in the banlieues empty-handed.
We didn’t make this mistake twice. The next day we left for the Quartier Latin much earlier and arrived well before closing. And after waiting a little under an hour in line, we were finally standing inside Shakespeare and Company.
The first section you encounter once the guard opens the door and lets you in is the Beats and Counterculture shelf. The Lost Generation immediately follows. These two shelves are where I spent most of my time, but they have much more, everything from modern literary fiction to poetry and film studies.
Because the books were about 20-40% more expensive than the market rate, I decided to only get one for the souvenir stamp and memento of my literary pilgrimage. The rest I could just buy online or from one of the many other options targeting poor university students in the area.
After about thirty minutes of deliberation and feeling guilty—the line continued growing outside all the while, staring, waiting—I went with Jack Kerouac’s lesser-known novella Satori in Paris.
This book wasn’t really on my radar pre-Paris, but the story of a French-Canadian writer visiting Paris and the rest of France to explore his roots and ancestral culture felt right. It was exactly the point of my trip to the country, and Kerouac has always been one of my favorite writers and sources of inspiration as a French-Canadian man myself.
I can’t wait to get into it after I finish the backlog currently sitting on my desk. At this point almost half of my suitcase is books. It’s a real problem.
Overall, I would recommend visiting Shakespeare and Company, though I will admit that it is fairly overrated, definitely overcrowded, and far too expensive.
It’s worth a trip once, but not more. I’m happy that I went back and bought a book but I wouldn’t do it again on my next trip to Paris or the one after that.
It’s not the place you go to slowly browse and pick up a hidden gem—everything in there has been vetted by either time or the critics of modernity—yet still it’s got an interesting energy and their signature stamp makes for a pretty cool souvenir for less than 20 euros.
- Nicholas Coursel
Buenos Aires, 3/23/2024
(I know, I know. I’m not in Paris anymore. I’ve got a backlog of posts to get out.)