The best English-language bookshops in Paris

English-language bookshops in Paris are one of the city's quiet pleasures. The scene has been remarkably stable for decades — the classics are still the classics, the newer shops have found their footing, and the events programmes have actually grown in the last five years. If you live in Paris you have a regular shop. If you are visiting, knowing which one to make the pilgrimage to is the question.

Here is the ranked list. Six shops, ranked by stock, curation, and the events programme.

How I picked

Three things. The stock — depth and breadth of the English-language selection. The curation — is it walked by someone who reads, or is it just stocked? And the events — are there author talks, book clubs, signings that make the shop a place to spend time, not just buy a book?

1. Shakespeare and Company

The classic. Left Bank, opposite Notre-Dame, the kind of bookshop that gets photographed twice an hour and somehow remains a working bookshop. Yes, it is touristy. The queue at the till on a Saturday afternoon is real. But the stock is genuinely the best English-language selection in Paris, the staff actually read, and the events programme is consistently strong.

What works: the fiction section is the deepest in Paris — properly stocked across literary, contemporary, classic. The poetry section is small but properly chosen. The reading room upstairs is free, quiet, and has couches you are allowed to actually sit on. The events programme runs roughly twice a week — author readings, signings, book launches.

What to know: book ahead for events, they fill up. Avoid Saturday afternoon if you want to actually browse. The early morning (10-11am) is the calmest window.

2. The Abbey Bookshop

Tiny, properly curated, the kind of shop where the owner remembers what you bought last visit. Latin Quarter, walking distance from the Sorbonne, vertical shop with stock packed to the ceiling.

Why it is number two: the curation is genuinely excellent. The shop is small enough that everything on the shelves is there because someone chose it. Strong on Canadian and British literary fiction (the owner is Canadian and the British connection is long-standing). The Irish literature section is one of the best in Paris.

The events programme is small but consistently good — author readings, often with the kind of writers who do not have huge platforms but have proper readers.

3. Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore

Best events programme in the city. Marais location, smaller than Shakespeare's but properly stocked. The events run twice a week most weeks — author talks, book clubs, occasional small panels.

What works: the events are properly attended without being overwhelming. The book club has been running for years and is genuinely one of the best literary social spaces in Paris. The owner programmes the events with care, which means the line-ups are coherent and the visiting authors are usually interesting.

Stock is strong on contemporary literary fiction and translated work. The translation section — books translated into English from other languages — is the best in Paris.

4. Galignani

The grand bookshop. Rue de Rivoli, opposite the Jardin des Tuileries, half English-language, half French-language. The art books section is the best in Paris by a clear margin — properly deep, properly curated, properly priced.

What works: the art and design books are the reason to come. The English-language fiction and non-fiction selection is solid but not deep. The shop itself is genuinly one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world — wood panelling, proper shelving, a sense of being in a library.

Best for: an art book that is hard to find elsewhere. Less good as a regular fiction shop.

5. Smith&Son

Properly stocked English bookshop on Rue de Rivoli. Less curated than the Marais picks, much wider selection. If you want a specific recent release in English and the curated shops do not have it, Smith&Son will.

The non-fiction section is the strongest part — biography, history, current affairs. The fiction section is good but not deep. Prices are fair.

The downside: the staff are not the engaged-in-conversation kind. It is more transactional than the curated picks. Useful, not magical.

6. Berkeley Books of Paris

Used books. Latin Quarter, Tue-Sat, the kind of second-hand bookshop where you spend an hour and walk out with three books for 12 EUR. The fiction section is the move — properly stocked, fairly priced.

Best for: filling out a reading list on the cheap. Less good for a specific recent release.

What I left off

I left off two of the bigger English-language sections in French department stores. The selection is fine. The atmosphere is not — fluorescent lighting, no events, no curation. Buying a book in those spaces feels like buying a magazine. Untill they invest in the curation they are not in the same conversation as the proper bookshops.

I also left off the Mona Lisait chain — the books are fine, the curation is non-existent, and the staff cannot tell you what is on the shelves.

Practical bits

Hours: most shops are open Tuesday-Saturday roughly 10am-7pm. Some open Monday and Sunday. Shakespeare and Company is open 10am-9pm daily, which is genuinly useful.

Events: Red Wheelbarrow and Shakespeare and Company have the most regular programmes. The Abbey Bookshop runs occasional readings. Most events are free; some require advance booking.

Cash and card: all listed shops take card. Galignani and Shakespeare and Company also take cash. Berkeley Books prefers cash for second-hand.

Bag policy: Galignani and Shakespeare and Company will hold your bag at the counter on busy days. Smaller shops do not.

Quick picks

If you go once: Shakespeare and Company, the early morning slot. If you live in Paris: Red Wheelbarrow as your regular plus Abbey Bookshop for the curated buys. If you want art books: Galignani, no contest. If you are buying second-hand: Berkeley Books.

I keep a Paris literary events page on Rifio that picks up author readings, book launches and the literary festivals. The shop newsletters alone do not catch everything — visiting authors often have multiple Paris events the same week and the cross-referenced list is the only way to plan a properly bookish few days.

One last thing

Recieve advice from a local: most of the English-language bookshops in Paris are within a 30 minute walk of each other. A Saturday morning loop — Shakespeare and Company, then walk across the river to Galignani, then to Red Wheelbarrow in the Marais, then a long lunch — is one of the best Paris afternoons going.