Paris bookshops. Paris music bookshops

Find English bookshop in Paris

The largest bookshops in town are Fnac stores and Gibert, the reference academic bookstore in the city, selling new and second-hand books in English. Close to the Louvre, Smith&Son Paris sells English books.

We like the creative Red Wheelbarrow bookshop near Luxembourg Gardens, the iconic Shakespeare and Company American bookshop and the tiny Abbey Bookshop Paris Canadian bookshop, both close to Notre-Dame.

Best bookshops in Paris

Shakespeare and Company bookshop

In 1919, American Sylvia Beach opened a bookshop Shakespeare and Company, 12 rue de l'Odéon in Paris. Hemingway, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Scott Fitzgerald came along frequently.

When George Whitman arrived in Paris soon after World War II, he knew about Shakespeare and Company, but the shop had been forced to close in 1941. George fell in love with Paris, living in cheap hotels and collecting so many books that in 1951 he had to open a bookstore. That store, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, kept up the spirit of the Shakespeare mother ship, inviting writers to eat, sleep, and work. When Sylvia Beach went along to a reading at the store in 1958, she gave a short speech and the famous name went up again. Shakespeare and Company was back in business.

French bookshops in Paris

There is a revival of independent bookshops such as La Procure near Luxembourg Gardens with nice premises, a large choice, good advice and competitive prices.

In 2018, Delphine Bouétard and Anne-Laure Vial opened Ici, a 500 m2 bookshop on two levels near Musée Grévin. They say: "The book market is stable, unlike the record and video game. And the independent bookshop has its place to recreate the human touch" Here the reader is king. He can walk around, sit down, drink coffee. The shelves are heavily loaded with fine art books, pocket editions and all contemporary and ancient French literature, poetry, crime novel, children's books, but also foreign literature.

CD stores in Paris

With the development of internet music platforms, there are now few CD stores in the city. The last CD stores are the established Fnac stores. The nicest Fnac store is Fnac Etoile.

OCD stores are buying, selling and exchanging used Blu-Ray, DVD, CD and vinyl records as well as videogames. Each store has at least 20,000 different references.

Paris music stores

For classical sheet music, we recommend La Flute de Pan music bookshop near Saint-Lazare train station.

Star's Music in Pigalle near Montmartre is the reference in the city for popular music instruments.

Paul Beuscher near Opéra Bastille is the largest music instrument store in town.

Best music bookshop in Paris

The best sheet music store, mostly classical music:

The best musical instrument stores:

The best CD and vynil stores:

Best FNAC stores in Paris

Fnac stores used to focus on books and CDs. Nowadays, they sell less CDs and diversify into computers and electronics. All Fnac stores are open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 8pm, Sunday 11am to 7pm. Fnac web site. The largest FNAC stores are quite attractive:

Fnac Etoile
26, Avenue des Ternes 75017

Fnac Montparnasse
136, rue de Rennes 75006