shakespeare and co.

a little book shop facing notre dame, shakespeare & company is a magical place to go to pick up second-hand/new books, or even just sit down and flick through the pages of old, yellowing books.
stepping inside this little bookshop is like stepping into a different era. it's an old 18th century building with uneven floors and sagging ceilings with big wooden beams. there are books everywhere, with couches around the place so you can sit down and read. there's even an old piano up there that you can sit down and play...

there's a little curtained alcove upstairs that has every inch of it covered in notes & messages left by visitors. apparently there's some romantic connection to the old book shop, as lots of people leave love letters to people. notes are left on whatever the person had on them at the time - paper, receipts, maps, metro tickets, tissues, photographs (there were lots of people who left copies of their little passport photos), and are written in more languages than i could count on both hands.

with tables & chairs out the front, i get the impression that it's a common meeting place for english speakers in paris - seeing as the majority (if not 100%) of the books that the shop sells are in english. it's tucked in between shops on either side, and if you're not keeping an eye out you can easily walk straight by it.

with a trip to spain in a few days, i came to shakespeare & co. to land my hands on a couple of books to take with me. i can't begin to explain what a luxury it is to be able to lose yourself in a book written in your mother tongue. managed to find several great ones for just 2€ each. mmmm and they have that old book smell. mm!
will definitely be back here several times during my time in paris...there's this undescribable peacefulness within its walls that i haven't found anywhere else here in the french capital...

with anna & kate spending a few nights with me in my apartment, we decided to splurge on a delicious dinner in one of the many restaurants lining the streets of montmartre. yum, salmon pasta!


bisous, bisous,




S.

a little alcove upstairs with notes left by visitors

another great place for buying second-hand english books is here, in saint michel

definitely a promising, quality read...or not

wandering the streets of saint michel

delicious pasta by candlelight

la panthéon

i wouldn't go so far as to say i 'stumbled upon' the pantheon (or if you want to be fancy, la panthéon), as i figured it was in the general rive gauche vicinity... but it was only after taking a few 'there-should-be-a-metro-somewhere-around-here' turns that all of a sudden there it was in front of me.

i was actually heading home from a coffee & crêpe date with a friend, but being only 6 o'clock i figured why not - and decided to check the late 18th century basilica-turned-temple.

i had the place almost to myself, which seemed to magnify the vastness of the building. i was so confused as to what its actual purpose was, so i had a chat to the little man at the entrance and he more or less told me that it was originally a basilica for christian worship until the late 19th century - when it was given a secular use and turned from a church to a 'resting place' for the ashes of 'the nation's great men'.

there's also a crypt underground, where lies victor hugo & voltaire....as well as léon gambetta's preserved heart. lovely.

such an impressive building & proof that a surprise, un-planned visit can be a great one.

S.

gambetta's preserved heart