A Book Lover’s Guide to Exploring Paris
Live out your literary fantasies in the City of Light while shopping for novels along the Seine, dining at Hemingway’s favorite brasseries, and visiting Victor Hugo’s home
Paris was built for readers. Here it’s easy to while away an afternoon outside with a novel — sitting on the banks of the Seine or on a bench under the tree-shaded alleyway of Jardin du Palais-Royal or at a sidewalk cafe with a glass of Muscadet or a café crème. Independent bookshops abound, specializing in manga, art history, cooking, feminism, and more. And poetry is cherished and even turned into a monumental piece of public art.
Over the centuries, Paris has produced a long list of literary greats. Inside the warmth and hustle of the city’s cafes, writers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus contemplated the absurdity of human existence. Simone de Beauvoir caused a scandal with her feminist book The Second Sex, and Ernest Hemingway stripped down his prose to create a new form of minimalist storytelling — while tossing back dry martinis.
But you don’t have to have read Hemingway or Camus to appreciate the city’s literary history. The pull of an empty green chair in the Luxembourg Gardens is irresistible for all true book lovers, even if your personal reading list is more sci-fi than philosophy, or thriller over historical fiction.
In that spirit, the following itinerary is less a literary guide and more a general book lover’s guide to Paris that includes classic bookshops and cafes and hopefully a few surprises. For logistical purposes, the first day’s itinerary suggests spots located on the Left Bank, and the second day, spots mostly on the Right Bank.
Who I am: I’m Vivian Song, a Paris-based Canadian journalist who has lived in the French capital since 2010. When I’m not covering breaking news or reporting on Paris’s food, culture, and travel trends for U.S., U.K., and Canadian publications, I can often be found at a cafe or library with a book of literary fiction. I’m constantly scouting new reading and writing locations. I’m also the writer of the illustrated book Paris Shopfronts, which features some of my favorite bookshops and reading spots in the city.
Before you go:
Know the seasons: Peak tourist season is June to August. Incidentally, many independent shopkeepers and businesses close for up to four weeks during this time for their own summer vacations. That makes fall the perfect backdrop for a book lover’s tour of Paris, with its cooler weather and poetically melancholy light.
Take this home: Buy a hardback at Librairie Galignani, the oldest English-language bookstore in France, and get it embossed with the shop’s name at the checkout counter for free for a memorable keepsake. Tote bags from Shakespeare and Company, The Abbey Bookshop, or the open-air booksellers are also popular souvenirs.
Getting around: The best way to experience the true essence of Paris is to walk as much as possible. For longer distances, the Paris Métro is practical, easy to navigate, and affordable. In a pinch, the city’s G7 taxi service is reliable and offers English-language service.
Where to Stay
Two Literary-Inspired Days in Paris
Day 1: Shop for books along the Seine, visit the country’s oldest library, and dine at one of Hemingway’s favorite brasseries
Morning
- Set the tone for your literary-themed Paris excursion on the Left Bank at Maison Fleuret, a 19th century bookstore turned coffee shop. The calming, quiet uniformity of off-white book spines that line the walls from floor-to-ceiling is peak book lovers’ aesthetic. A wrought-iron staircase leads to a lovely mezzanine alcove where you can sit with a book, a matcha latte, and something sweet (a raspberry tart, perhaps?) from the plant-based menu.
- Now that you’re fueled up, take a stroll along the upper quays of the Seine and visit the bouquinistes, or open-air booksellers, a 450-year-old tradition that is uniquely Parisian. Admire the vintage, leather-bound books that fill the green bookstalls and keep your eye out for collector and rare titles. Many of the 200 booksellers are experts in their own right, specializing in different genres, including detective novels, sci-fi, and philosophy. A stroll alongside the nearly two-mile trail of bookstalls also offers scenic views of the Louvre, the Notre-Dame de Paris, and the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge.
- From here, wander over to the 6th arrondissement, where you can see poetry turned into visual art. Hidden along Rue Férou, a narrow, cobblestoned side street near Luxembourg Gardens, the melancholic verses of the “The Drunken Boat” by 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud (which can be read here in English), are inscribed in an extra-large font along a beautiful stone wall. Unveiled in 2012, the poem is meant to be read right to left. Take note: Ernest Hemingway wrote much of A Farewell to Arms while living at 6 rue Férou.
Afternoon
- Inspired by the literary cafes that shaped the Left Bank, Bistro des Livres opened as a “literary bistro” for lovers of gastronomy and literature earlier this year. With exposed beams, stone walls, and leather-bound books that line the back wall, the cozy setting evokes an elegant French country house. The menu is classic French, with dishes like frog’s legs, duck confit, steak tartare, and crème brulée. The restaurateur also operates Bistro des Poèmes and Bistro des Lettres, located nearby.
- A two-minute stroll will bring you to Shakespeare and Company, the photogenic bookshop just across the Seine from Notre-Dame and a must visit. In its heyday, it was the center of Paris’s English-speaking intellectual elite. Henry Miller and James Baldwin were among some of its early customers. Afterward, check out the Canadian-owned, English-language Abbey Bookshop just a few streets over, where chaos and clutter somehow work to give the bookshop its delightfully lived-in, timeless feel. Along with Canadian authors, the shop also sells new and used contemporary titles and the classics.
- Walk along the Seine to Bibliothèque Mazarine, the oldest public library in France, with a history stretching back to the 17th century. A sumptuously erudite setting with its Corinthian columns and antique busts, the library’s hallowed halls are sure to send a frisson of excitement for scholarly bibliophiles and history lovers. Take a seat in the reading room and soak in the glory of 600,000 printed books and manuscripts, many focused on medieval and modern French history. Just remember to take your passport with you, as access requires photo ID.
Evening
- Time for a pre-dinner apéro. Les Editeurs is a classic French cafe in Saint-Germain-des-Prés that pays tribute to the neighborhood’s heritage as the former center of French publishing houses. Inside, the decor evokes an intimate study or at-home library with dark wood paneling and wall-to-wall bookshelves filled with French classics that you’re free to read. Sink into the plush red leather chairs and order a glass of chablis or Sancerre and a paté or cheese board to whet your appetite.
- For dinner, head to Boulevard du Montparnasse, where historic brasseries doubled as bustling meeting places for members of the Lost Generation, a group of American expat writers including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Henry Miller, and Gertrude Stein. Choose from Le Dôme, which opened in 1898 and later earned a reputation as an “Anglo-American cafe,” and La Coupole, which opened in 1927 as a restaurant and dance hall. Both serve French classics and towering fresh seafood platters with oysters, crab, langoustines and lobsters.
Day 2: Tour Victor Hugo’s house, write a letter to your future self, and sip martinis at the Ritz
Morning
- True bibliophiles know Café de Flore not from Emily in Paris, but from its legacy as one of Europe’s most influential literary cafes. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir used the corner cafe as their personal office and artist and writer friends dropped in regularly for lively intellectual and philosophical debates. Next door, rival cafe Les Deux Magots attracted a similar intellectual set, including Rimbaud, Camus, and Hemingway. Pick your favorite and enjoy a typical French breakfast: coffee, croissant or pain au chocolat, and a side of people-watching.
- Next, take a scenic walk across the Seine to the Right Bank and head to France’s first English-language bookshop Librairie Galignani, where you’ll find a solid selection of British and American classics alongside the new best sellers. If you buy a book, ask to get it embossed at the checkout counter for a sentimental (and free) souvenir.
- Take your new book to easily the most jaw-droppingly beautiful reading room in Paris, the Salle Ovale at the Bibliothèque de France on rue Richelieu. Reopened in 2022 after a 12-year renovation, the historic reading room is open to the public and features 160 seats. Appreciate the colossal glass ceiling and regal archways before joining other like-minded visitors reading under the halo of natural light. All 20,000 books in the library are free to peruse, including the 9,000 graphic novels and comics.
Afternoon
- Lunch is in the Marais, where you’ll find a charming three-in-one bookshop, concept store, and cafe, La Mouette Rieuse (Laughing Seagull). Browse the stationery, homeware, and gift section for souvenirs as well as the large selection of the books, then head to the back for boeuf bourguignon or duck confit cassoulet in a bright and airy space.
- After lunch, stroll through one of the prettiest squares in Paris, Place des Vosges, and head to Maison Victor Hugo, a free museum that has recreated Hugo’s family home. The author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame lived and worked in this apartment rental between 1832 and 1848. After your tour, pop into the concept store Merci’s Used Book Café, which is decorated with thousands of second-hand books, for a quick caffeine fix.
- If you’re a reader who also likes to write, head to L’Ecritoire. Hidden in an open-air passageway in the 3rd arrondissement, the stationery store sells all manner of writing instruments including old-fashioned plume pens, cards, elegant letter sets, ink pots, and wax seal kits. From here, you’ll also want to visit Café Pli, a letter-writing cafe modeled after ones in South Korea. While enjoying a coffee and dessert, visitors are invited to write a letter to either their future self or a friend or loved one that will be sealed, stored, and posted a year (or five) later.
Evening
- -For dinner, consider Drouant, a classic French restaurant near the Palais Garnier that is the seat of France’s most prestigious literary awards. Every month, jurors for the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Renaudot meet to discuss the best releases from the country’s top writers. The winners are announced every November and feted at the restaurant in a highly publicized affair. The menu is old-school French, with appetizers like escargots and foie gras, and mains like vol-au-vent, puff pastry filled with chicken, sweetbreads and chanterelle mushrooms, and roast beef with béarnaise sauce.
-For a fancy night cap, slip into the legendary Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris hotel. Hemingway was a regular here — as you can see by the photos and magazine covers of him that decorate the intimate space — and he sipped on dry martinis with friends F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Order his standby, which now comes with a white rose clipped to the glass — a poetic way to end your trip.
If you have three days
All of the above but add…
- Take a stroll through Père Lachaise cemetery, the largest and most illustrious cemetery in Paris, where famous writers like Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Molière lay buried. Take note that you can no longer kiss the tomb of Oscar Wilde, a tradition that damaged the stone and forced the city to erect a glass barrier for protection.
- Afterward, pop over to Messy Nessy’s Cabinet, a charming “cabinet of curiosities” in the 5th arrondissement that sells English-language guide books and assorted knick knacks, be it bistro matches or vintage brass bells. Once a month, author and shopowner Vanessa Grall, the woman behind the popular Messy Nessy Chic account on Instagram, also hosts a writer’s workshop where people can share unpublished work.
If you have four days
All of the above but add…
- Yes, you’ve been to a lot of bookstores, but there’s more to tick off your list, including Artazart in the trendy Canal Saint-Martin area. This neighborhood institution specializes in art, photography, and design books and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Also worth a visit is Monocle Café and Shop, where you can pore over the latest issue of Monocle and other indie magazines while sipping on a cortado or spritz, and Saint Laurent Babylone, a concept store from the fashion brand that also sells art and design books.
- Librairie Delamain is the oldest bookshop in Paris, with a legacy that stretches back to 1708, located near the Louvre and Jardin du Palais-Royal. Over the centuries, famous customers have included Alexandre Dumas and Guy de Maupassant.
- Librairie Jousseaume is a beautiful 19th century bookshop located in one of Paris’s most elegant glass-covered passages, Galerie Vivienne, that has been largely preserved from its original state when it opened in 1826. Peruse the artful collection of postcards and second-hand and vintage books.
