seine booksellers

lining the riverbank from pont neuf to pont des arts are the green, wooden boxes of the seine river booksellers. at night the little boxes lie dormant, but during the day they open up into a snaking line of miniature stalls overflowing with old books, new books, big books, miniature books, foreign-language  books, etc... 

although that part of the booksellers is self-explanatory, the little shops/stalls also sell prints of famous artworks, copies of famous magazine covers & iconic images dating back to the 20s, both new & pre-loved postcards (i bought an old print of the arc de triomphe with a barely legible love letter from the 70s written on the back. cute), old keychains made up of random recycled advertisements from previous decades, amongst a sea of other oddities.

the booksellers run right up to pont des arts - the "love-lock" bridge, so the stalls leading up to the pedestrian bridge sell locks of all shapes, colours & sizes that passers by can then attach to the bridge's railings. i somehow always seem to lose track of time while strolling along the banks of the seine...i get caught up rummaging through old prints of paris (of which there are literally thousands), flicking through the  impressionist prints dangling from the roofs of the little boxes & snapping the same photos time and time again - everywhere i look just seems to capture a new moment of the quaint little existence of the seine river booksellers...

à bientôt,

S.

looking across the seine to the musée du louvre

a street busker playing a piano-ish type of instrument i've never seen before

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