Today, Friday, was supposed to be the only nice day of this weekend (the last of the semester!) so some of us decided to go ice-skating at the Trocadero rink, right across from the Eiffel Tower.
Some teachers had the same idea, and booked the rink for their students. Too bad so sad, but the best view of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and one of the better crêpe stands (these people are not stingy with their nutella!).
After collecting a few handfuls of free chocolate samples at the Trocadero Christmas Market, walked over to Deyrolle with Clara, and then trekked down the Seine.
Past the love-locks bridge (Le Pont des Arts)...
and some old-fashioned sailboats with big wooden steering wheels...
to get to Shakespeare and Company!! I'd been saving it as a reward for finishing all my classes and work.
Touristy, yes. Any more so and the guys with the one-euro mini Eiffel Towers will start camping out between shelves. But so so worth it.
This place is everything a bookstore should be. Floor to ceiling books, and slightly disorganized piles on tables; hand-written staff recommendations stuck on favorite books; not too clean-you still get that great book smell; warm, non-fluorescent lights; and the perfect reading room upstairs!
No pictures from the reading room, but the walls were covered in old books (from their library, not for sale), there was a mishmash of comfy chairs, a desk with a functioning typewriter, and a big window looking out on the Seine. Also in the next room there was a piano, so for a while my reading was accompanied by piano music. Where else does that happen? I camped out in an overstuffed blue velvet wing chair with a book for an hour and a half.
