There are several English language bookstores in Paris, a handful of which I've yet to visit.  Each one seems to have its own specialty.

The Abbey Bookshop, just down the street from the Cluny La Sorbonne RER stop (off Boulevard St. Michel), has the largest selection of travel books I've seen in Paris.  The shop is floor-to-ceiling books.  The owner, a friendly Canadian, makes recommendations based on my purchases each time I visit.  I've never wandered the shop when he wasn't on a step ladder shoving books into tiny crevices, or rearranging large stacks of them to get to the shelves behind.  Because of the narrow aisles, I don't recommended the Abbey for those with clumsy tendencies, great height, or especially round bellies.  Though there's a wide selection of nearly every genre, I primarily visit the Abbey Bookshop to buy travel guides.

See the Abbey's interior here and here.  Information from the Abbey's website:

• Established as a S.A.R.L. in Paris in 1989: Corporate Name: "The Abbey Bookshop (Europe) S.A.R.L."
• subsidiary of "The Abbey Bookshop" in Toronto, created in 1981
• only bookshop outside of Canada representing Canadian publishers - both anglophone and francophone
• established and existing without any grants, 100% independent
• in 1996, creation of "The Canadian Club"

Shakespeare & Co. is another beloved Parisian bookstore that has been around much longer.  The shop's history, in addition to a schedule of readings and a 360 tour, can be found here.  The shop is across the Seine from Notre Dame, with the Abbey Bookshop just a few blocks away, deeper in the Latin Quarter.



Shakespeare & Co. opened in 1951 after its owner, George Whitman, amassed a large collection of English-language books during several years living in Paris.  The bookstore served as a base for many members of the Beat generation, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs among them.  Its name comes from a previous Parisian bookstore (in a different location) run by Sylvia Beach, who catered to members of the Lost Generation -- Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Man Ray, James Joyce, etc.  Today's shop is now run by Sylvia, George's daughter, who is named after Beach.



The store hosts several readings every season, and also serves as a meeting place for small writers' workshops in the city.  Next door in another store front, Shakespeare & Co. houses its collection of rare and antique books, which I've never seen open to the public.  I suspect to see the collection one must know the owner or make a special request.  There are a few beds on the second floor or the main shop where visiting writers can stay the night, or where "tumbleweeds" can sleep in exchange for a few hours of work.

Just inside the front door of the shop is an entire shelf of books on Paris and France, ranging from historical texts to novels that use the city as a setting.

There are still some English-language bookstores in the city that I haven't visited yet, most notably the Village Voice where David Sedaris is reading later this month.