Shakespeare & Co.

So, it's been a while since I've put up anything too exciting on the blog - because I've mainly been hanging out with friends - movie nights, cinema, eating together: the kind of thing that no one needs to see posted on the internet. But, I've neglected to post about a whole other aspect to my life in Paris which has recently taken root, grown and blossomed. 

Outside the Shop

Right at the beginning of my blog [here] I posted about The Shakespeare & Company, after having been there twice before on trips to Paris. The first time I went to the shop, it was as a tourist, and I treated it as such. I enjoyed looking around, but it bothered me to find that in the old typewriter upstairs there was no ribbon, and I began to imagine that the whole shop operated as a sham, not a "socialist utopia masquerading as a bookshop" as Whitman, the founder liked to quip, but rather the other way round. On my third visit I was still wavering over the genuineness of the shop, but I soon realised there is a depth to The Shakespeare and Company that confirmed its authenticity in my eye.

 

In the studio upstairs.

As opposed to other French bookshops I've been to, which are understandably businesses with books to sell & money to be made, the bookshop really is a project of the heart. It's a living, beating hub which embraces current authors as much as keeping old traditions alive: the bookshop still welcomes "Tumbleweed" authors who live in the shop above in exchange for helping out for 2 hours a day in the shop. They've recently taken to busking outside on the banks of the Seine, so the front of the shop is filled with guitar music and at the back, the tinkling of piano keys drifts down from customers who are invited to play the upright piano upstairs. The admiration and affection that all who work for the bookshop is real, and for me that overrides everything.

Flowers in the park outside the bookshop. Virginia Woolf painted on the window upstairs.

And now, I've joined the ranks. The shop has an internship/volunteer system: 4 hours of unpaid work a week is your ticket into the centre of this rabbit warren of a shop. It might sound like a raw deal, and in certain ways it is. You really have to enjoy being in the shop, to be the kind of person who might have spent 4 hours amongst books in any case. The bit I like is getting to know all the interesting people from all over the world who work there: the staff, Tumbles and other volunteers. I like getting to talk to the customers for whom The Shakespeare & Company is a dream-come-true, who leave notes and photos around the speckled mirror upstairs or slipped into books. I like being able to go up into George Whitman's old apartment, which has apparently remained almost unchanged over the passage of time. And the other day I was asked to take the shop's resident dog Colette for a walk, with an old belt hastily fashioned into a leash. This very much sums up the syncopated rhythm of the bookshop life. 

You aren't allowed pictures in the bookshop, so here's one I nicked off the internet :)

I really do think that everyone comes away from The Shakespeare & Company with their own story to tell, and George Whitman's statement that the shop is a "novel in three words" is something I can side with. It's not for everyone, but I'm loving my time helping out there so far!

À Bientôt !
x

The Rentrée

"The Return". I read a newspaper article that rightly pointed out how ominous the same name sounds in English. "La Rentree" however, sums up that annual shifting back into gear come September which isn't quite captured in our phrase "Back To School" which conjures up images of patent leather shoes with frilly white ankle socks and sharpened pencils. 


"La Rentree" encompasses kids, office workers, and you got it - students! So today I dutifully navigated the Metro & was rewarded by my first venture inside the Sorbonne & a student card.


Getting on at the Musee d'Orsay station and off outside Notre-Dame is really quite amazing - two sites in one day without even trying :) 

We went into the most beautiful lecture hall I have ever seen, with statues of famous philosophers in the four corners and a giant fresco behind the lectern. I don't think my classes will be here but it's not a bad introduction to the university!

This picture doesn't convey it but it's the best I got!

I met loads of English students (so many from UCL!) and a group of us went for lunch at a local cafe where I finally ate something authentically French! Croque-Monsieurs are the best on a rainy day!

This picture doesn't convey it but it's the best I got!

Just hunkering down inside because the weather ain't pretty, and at 19.00 this evening is the Gatsby Party at the Shakespeare and Co Bookstore - let's hope the rain eases off!

À Bientôt!

x

"Yes, I live in Paris...since today"

I can't believe I'm finally here. Months of anticipation, my Mum stalking the wrong street on Google Street View and listening to Franceinfo.fr - have all come to this! I now live in Paris. Or as I told the lady in the Metro station - "Yes, I live in Paris, since today". 

Coming to terms with the move via a handy visual aid

My neighbourhood and landlady are thankfully lovely - surrounded by A LOT of Italian bistros (traditional..) and government buildings with a reassuring number of official looking uniformed French people dotted outside impressive gates. We must have walked for miles and succeeded in doing none of our tasks such as getting a mobile phone contract or setting up a bank. French bureaucracy stands firm against aching legs, pitifully incorrect French and baleful looks as we were told to come back tomorrow with all the official documentation. We did however, discover some very lovely things:

The Sorbonne University

A free chalk wall by the Seine

Les Invalides - round the corner!

I'm exhausted but I'm happy & so thankful. The sun peeped through the clouds, I spoke French, I was spoken back to in French. And I'm excited to try lots of new things over the next few weeks - like this 'Gatsby Evening' at the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop by Notre-Dame!

Can't wait to get some sleep!

À bientôt !

x