As my French is, well, fairly rudimentary and my need for the spoken word is huge, it is a great surprise to find that Paris has so many English language bookshops. I suppose the most famous of these is Shakespeare and Company on the Left Bank (just opposite Notre Dame). http://shakespeareandcompany.com/
Not only is it packed floor to ceiling with an excellent stock of new and some quality second hand books, at not too bad a mark up on UK prices, but it also holds author readings almost every Monday and a writers' workshop on Saturdays in the late afternoon/early evening.
In the last few days I have heard Edward St Aubyn reading from his latest novel - the finale to a five book series (At Last) that I was not familiar with, and attended the writer's workshop where we are a rather strange tourist attraction. I have never been part of a group where work-shopping is a random spectator sport for book browsers before! I imagine I will get used to it.
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