Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SHOPPING
Bookworms in particular will love this part of the Left Bank, which is home to
some wonderful bookshops. Other student-frequented shops include camp-
ing stores, comic shops, old-school music shops where collectors browse for
hours, and cheap, colourful homewares stores, interspersed with the occa-
sional droguerie-quincaillerie (hardware store) - easily spotted by the jumble
of laundry baskets, buckets etc piled on the pavement in front.
BOOKS
SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.shakespeareandcompany.com ; 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 5e;
10am-11pm
Mon-Fri, from 11am Sat & Sun; St-Michel)
This bookshop is the stuff of legends. A kind of spell descends as you enter, weaving
between nooks and crannies overflowing with new and secondhand English-language
books. The original shop (12 rue l'Odéon, 6e; closed by the Nazis in 1941) was run by
Sylvia Beach and became the meeting point for Hemingway's 'Lost Generation'. Readings
by emerging and illustrious authors take place at 7pm most Mondays; it also hosts work-
shops and festivals.
American-born George Whitman opened the present incarnation in 1951, attracting a
beat-poet clientele, and scores of authors have since passed through its doors. In 2006 Whit-
man was awarded the Officier des Arts et Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, recog-
nising 'significant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance'. Whit-
man died in 2011, aged 98; he is buried in division 73 of Cimetière du Père Lachaise. Today
his daughter, Sylvia Beach Whitman, maintains Shakespeare & Company's serendipitous
magic. It's fabled for nurturing writers, and at night its couches turn into beds where writers
stay in exchange for stacking shelves.
MUSIC
CROCODISC
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.crocodisc.com ; 40 & 42 rue des Écoles, 5e;
11am-7pm Tue-Sat;
Maubert-Mutualité)
Music might be more accessible than ever before thanks to iPods, iPads and phones, but for
many it will never replace rummaging through racks for treasures. New and secondhand
CDs and vinyl discs at 40 rue des Écoles span world music, rap, reggae, salsa, soul and
disco, while No 42 has pop, rock, punk, new wave, Electro and soundtracks.
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