Paris, France

Shakespeare and Company

Bookstore serves double duty as "Tumbleweed Hotel"

234

In 1951, an eccentric American named George Whitman opened a bookstore with the hope of creating a literary hub at the heart of Paris.

George, a fervent communist, decided he would welcome all writers needing a place to stay in Paris as his own personal guests at the bookstore. Painted over an inner door is the bookshop's motto “be kind to strangers lest they be angels in disguise," an endearing welcome for all those with a heart astray.

The requirements are simple. On a first-come, first-serve basis, these guests, whom George dubbed the "Tumbleweeds," must write a biography and help out for an hour or two a day around the bookstore. With 13 beds concealed as book shelves during the day, Shakespeare and Co has become a utopia for the wanderlust-stricken traveler, looking for a place to stay in Paris. George calls the bookstore "a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore".

Today, over 50 years later, George's daughter, Sylvia, has taken over the day-to-day management of the store, but the Tumbleweed tradition still lives, and George claims that as many as 40,000 people have slept in the shop over the years.

Regular activities that occur in the bookshop are Sunday tea, poetry readings and writers' meetings. In the 1950s, the shop served as a base for many of the writers of the Beat Generation, such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William S. Burroughs.

  • Address
    37 rue de la Bûcherie, Paris, 75005, France
  • Cost
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