A Family Tradition of Bookstores

Visiting bookstores has long been part of how our family travels. Wherever we go, we enjoy making time to browse the shelves and discover a place through its books. In Paris, that tradition brought us to Shakespeare and Company.

Both of our daughters are pictured at Shakespeare and Company: one outside among the books displayed along the storefront, the other inside surrounded by shelves in the library. 

Shakespeare and Company offered a particularly meaningful setting for our visit. George Whitman opened the English-language bookshop in 1951, creating a gathering place for readers and writers on the Left Bank. Originally called Le Mistral, it received its current name in 1964 in honor of Sylvia Beach’s earlier Paris bookstore.

Whitman’s hospitality extended beyond welcoming customers. Traveling writers and artists could sleep among the shelves, on beds that served as benches during the day. These guests, known as “Tumbleweeds,” were asked to read a book daily, help in the shop and contribute a short autobiography. Their stories became part of the bookstore’s growing archive.

Browsing a bookstore gives each of us room to follow our own interests. We enter together, then find ourselves drawn toward different shelves, authors and subjects. There is time to linger, read a few pages and share something we have found.

At Shakespeare and Company, that familiar pleasure became part of our experience of Paris. The shop had its own remarkable history, while our daughters exploring its books added a personal connection we still carry with us.