English bookstores of Paris

I love books. I love bookstores. It's nearly impossible for me to go into one without buying something. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I don't have that problem in France because all of the books are in French! There are, however, a handful of English-language bookstores in Paris, so I decided to take an afternoon to visit them all. So here it is, my guide to the English-language bookstores of Paris! (The order, by the way, is the order in which I walked between them, it's not a ranking.)

1. Librarie Galignani
224 rue de Rivoli, near metro Tuileries

This boasts to be the first English-language bookstore on the continent (as you can see by the plaque next to the door). They have French books, too, but a very large selection of English books. It's very fancy, with parquet floors, and lots of expensive-looking books. It seemed kind of stuffy to me, though. Everyone working there looked pretty snooty and like they would be offended if I asked a question. Not my favorite.


2. W.H. Smith
248 rue de Rivoli, near metro Concorde

This one is right down the street from Librarie Galignani, but it has a very different feel. Where Librarie Galignani feels like an old-world library that turns up their noses at children, W.H. Smith feels like a Barnes and Noble or any chain bookstore from the US. It is really huge (2 floors) and maze-like, if rather generic. They have a whole section with British and American food (read: processed, artificial crap), games, and movies. They also have a whole room of educational books, from learning foreign languages to preparing for the SAT. Any in-print book I was looking for, I probably could've found here.

3. Tea and Tattered Pages
24 rue Mayet, near metro Falguiere

Unfortunately, this one had a sign on the door that said it was closed until further notice due to the owner being ill (but assured patrons that the cat would be well cared for). The sign had been posted 5 days before I got there. :( But it looked really cute!
 
4. Village Voice
6 rue Princesse, near metro Mabillon

I've been to this shop a few times in the past. It's on a teeny tiny little street. The shop itself is also pretty small (although it has two floors) in the European-bookstore style of not having much room to move around, but lots of books! I heard the owner say, though, that they're closing forever in July due to rising rent prices and people buying their books off the internet. That's sad - I really like this shop. Well-organized, neat, lots of interesting books displayed on the tables, nice people working there.

5. San Francisco Book Company
17 rue Monsieur le Prince, near metro Odeon

This store only has used books and it was pretty crazy and crammed (although it was positively roomy compared to the Abbey Bookshop, down below). It was really small, just one rectangular room, with old books piled sideways on the shelves (not up and down like normal). If you were trying to find something specific, I'm not sure if you would ever find it in there! But if you just wanted to spend some time looking through the books to see what you could find, I'm sure you could come up with some really interesting reads. Reviews of the shop online say they have great prices here, so if you're in town for awhile and need some books to read, this seems to be the place! It seemed rather dark and dusty to me, though, so I was glad to get back outside.

6. Berkeley Books of Paris
8 rue Casimir Delavigne, near metro Odeon

When I got to this shop, just around the corner from the SF Book Co. the door was closed with a shade pulled halfway down, but the lights were on inside. There was a note on the door in French with such messy handwriting that I couldn't read a single word! So, I tried the door. It was locked. Oh well...I started to walk away, but just then someone came and opened the door. I asked if they were open. "Yes, I was just changing a lightbulb," the owner said. This place was also pretty small, but felt much roomier than the San Francisco Book Co. They also had used books, but everything seemed much more organized here!

7. Abbey Bookshop
29 rue Parcheminerie, near metro Cluny-La Sorbonne

This place is quite an experience! If you're ever in Paris, you should go just to marvel at the sheer quantity of books in this place. As you can see from the picture of the outside, it's a Canadian-run bookstore that is literally overrun with books. There are piles and piles of books everywhere, from floor to ceiling, tucked into cracks and corners, balancing in precarious piles. There is barely room to walk through the store with mountains of books towering on every side. I'm amazed I didn't accidentally bump into anything and send tons of books crashing to the floor. This place has a medieval basement that is equally filled with books. The walls are made of stone, giving it the feeling of a book-infested crypt or something. I didn't take pictures inside of any of the other ones (I don't like to look too much like a tourist!), but I had to take some pictures in the basement of this one:

8. Shakespeare and Company
37 rue de la Bucherie, near RER St. Michel-Notre Dame, metro Notre Dame

This place is a real Paris institution. I've already described the vibe at this shop here, but this is definitely another one to stop by if you're in Paris. Here is a wonderful video about the shop:

9. The Red Wheelbarrow
22 rue St. Paul, near metro St. Paul

This is a tiny American bookshop in the Marais, named after the poem by the same name by William Carlos Williams. It's the probably the smallest of all of them, by it's not as seemingly disorganized as some of the others, so it feels much bigger. The walls are lined with shelves of books and the middle of the room has tables with books on display. It was very cute and the people working there were very nice, but didn't have the same kind of charm as the more jumbled and claustrophobic shops I visited.

10. Thanksgiving
20 rue St. Paul, near metro St. Paul

Bonus! Not a bookshop, but two doors down from The Red Wheelbarrow. This is an American food store and inside it smelled like sugar and chemicals. I really don't understand why someone living in Paris would crave and go out of their way to buy Kraft Mac n' Cheese, Coco Puffs, and M&Ms. One of the best parts of being in Europe is getting away from the garbage that passes as food in the US!

It took me four hours to go to all of these shops in one day. I took the metro from W.H. Smith to Tea and Tattered Pages, but all the rest are easy walking distance from each other. It was a very nice walk, through some of the most picturesque areas of Paris. A great way to spend the afternoon!