Shakespeare & Co bookshop, Paris
There are two things I really like to do when I travel. The first one is eat, and I did plenty of that when I visited Paris recently, including an incredible meal at Soya, a vegetarian restaurant in Le Marais. But my favourite was probably brunch at La Loir dans la Théière. It’s the kind of eclectically decorated, bustling place that Parisians eat at in films but my, the brunch was spectacular: they kept bringing out dish after dish, from eggs en cocotte to brioche and other delicate pastries. I was so full afterwards that I didn’t feel ready to eat again until 7 that evening, but at least I got my money’s worth. 
The second thing I love to do is visit bookshops, and the 60-year-old, English-language Shakespeare & Co, on the banks of the Seine near Notre Dame, is one of my favourites.
I first saw Shakespeare & Co in Before Sunset and it’s a perfect match for that film’s quiet, slow atmosphere. Dark wooden ladders perch up against the tall shelves for anyone brave enough to select books from the top; well-preserved second-hand books are tucked in alongside new, limited editions.
This is shopping as sensory experience: the piles of books on the tables encourage you to pick them up, feel their weight and their texture. I discovered some I’d never seen before and spent a long time thumbing through their collection of literary magazines.
Up a creaky wooden staircase is an equally eclectic children’s section and an antique books library. At the top of the stairs is a tiny booth, illuminated by fairy lights. Inside there’s a typewriter and hundreds of handwritten notes, scrawled on scraps of paper in different languages.
This time I came away with Dave Eggers’ The Best American Non-required Reading 2012, a scrapbook of American writing as diverse as that sold in the bookshop itself. So far I’ve read a very brief memoir by the wonderful Junot Diaz and several pieces on the Occupy Wall Street movement, including a selection of excerpts from minutes taken at meetings, and a detached, ambivalent piece from a writer who lived nearby. It’s a snapshot of America in 2012 but at the same time simply a celebration of the acts of observing, writing and reading. Like Shakespeare & Co it says: This is writing; marvel at it, savour it.
Samantha Cox 