By the time my train from Nice arrived in Paris, it was nearing sunset. I made it to my hostel before dark, but by the time I successfully explained who I was and managed to set my stuff down in a bedroom, it was nighttime. Thus, having no idea what time Shakespeare & Company closed on Mondays, I had to rush.

I’ve tried (and failed) to find Shakespeare & Company twice in the past. This time, armed with an actual address rather than vague directions in broken English, I was victorious! Honestly, I don’t know how I had such a hard time – it was hiding in plain sight.

Shakespeare & Company is named after Sylvia Beach’s famous bookstore from the first half of the twentieth century. It was famous as a centre of English literature in Paris, as it was frequented by members of the Lost Generation (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Joyce, to name a few) and offered books that had been banned elsewhere (such as “Ulysses” and “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”).

Sylvia Beach’s store closed during the Second World War. A few years later, another English-language bookstore was opened on the rue de la Bucherie under the same name, which was frequented by members of the Beat generation. Essentially, Shakespeare & Company is one of the most important sites in the history of twentieth-century English literature, and I couldn’t wait to finally take a look.

It was everything I could want in a bookstore. Floor-to-ceiling books, crowded (but not too crowded), a variety of titles and subjects, old-fashioned library ladders … it was perfect. I didn’t stay long, but I did manage to pick up a Henry Miller book as a souvenir – they even stamped the inside cover with a “Shakespeare & Company” seal. I returned to my hostel in a happy daze, and if I never make it back to France I’ll be content that I walked in the footsteps of the Lost Generation.