Shakespeare and Company is the most famous English-language bookshop in the world — partly because of its extraordinary literary history, partly because it sits directly across the Seine from Notre-Dame in one of the most atmospheric positions any bookshop has ever occupied. The current shop was founded by George Whitman in 1951 as a continuation of the original Shakespeare and Company run by Sylvia Beach, who published James Joyce's Ulysses in 1922.
The shop is labyrinthine, with books stacked floor to ceiling in tiny interconnected rooms, a reading library upstairs, and a cat. It hosts readings and events regularly, and the ground floor sells both new and used English-language titles. Go early morning before the tourist crowds arrive and you can browse quietly; later in the day it becomes very busy. The adjoining café serves good coffee with a view of Notre-Dame.