Underground & cool · Independent bookshop · €
Shakespeare and Company
George Whitman's English-language bookshop, opened in 1951 opposite Notre-Dame. Narrow stairs, beds among the shelves where 'Tumbleweeds' have slept since the 1950s, a piano, a wishing well and a reading library upstairs — a bookshop and a stubborn anachronism at once.
The free reading library and upstairs writer's room are easy to overlook; the adjoining café does the better coffee.
How we verified this
Confirmed currently operating as of June 2026, cross-checked against 1 source:
More underground & cool
par.is is a living map of Paris. Every place here is a real, currently operating destination — re-checked over time and removed the moment we can no longer confirm it's open. No paid placements, no scraped directory: just opinionated picks worth your trip.