We Love These 10 Bookstore-Cafes in France

In the walled city of Avignon, the former home of the Popes (seven, to be precise, all during the 14th century), the walled courtyard garden of Camili Books and Tea mimics the city in miniature. If there’s one thing that can make a bookstore café even more appealing, it’s plants, and the patio and bookstore itself are crammed with leafy pot plants that will keep the most hardcore of plant moms and dads happy. The selection of second-hand English language books is excellent, and Camili also hosts intimate concerts, craft workshops, and exhibitions.

France’s coolest bookstore café, in the coolest part of Paris (near Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the Latin Quarter), is all clean lines and Brooklyn vibes. The flat whites (although not cheap) are some of the best you’ll find in Paris, and alongside books, Bonjour Jacob sells vinyl and indie magazines. They even have a magazine club where subscribers receive two mystery independent publications each month. Whatever you read here, make it part of the look. An experimental novel that uses no punctuation or speech marks. A hardback coffee table tome filled with aspirational home interiors. The first edition of an anarchist zine. No true crime allowed.

Would any bookstore-café round-up be complete without a mention of Shakespeare and Company, the most famous bookstore in the country? It’s played host to some of the most famous authors to grace Paris’s literary scene: Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, and Allen Ginsberg, among others. The location is enviable, right on the banks of the River Seine, overlooking Paris’s Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame, and it’s testimony to Shakespeare and Company that even with one of the country’s most famous monuments just across the water, the little bookstore draws huge amounts of visitors itself. The books are tightly packed, fighting for space on every inch of the shelf. The café serves proper meals, not just sweet treats, and has a very good vegetarian and vegan menu.

Emily in Paris may not be known for being the most literary of characters, but it says a lot about Tram’s aesthetic that the show’s producers decided to film part of an episode here. The Croque Monsieur (with truffle) may eat into your book budget, but trust us, it’s worth it. Come evening, Tram is the perfect spot for an apéro over your latest purchase, and there are plenty of new releases and classic titles to choose from.

Edgy, artsy Nantes in Brittany, West France, is exactly where you’d expect to find one of the country’s best bookstore-cafés, and it doesn’t disappoint. Les Bien-Aimés doubles up as a wine bar and serves a mouthwatering menu of cakes and savory tarts. They regularly host live events (music, poetry readings, and talks from authors) and the collection of squishy armchairs and benches on the first floor means there’s plenty of space to plonk yourself down with a pile of books and give them a good peruse before you buy. A crisp paperback with a chilled glass of Muscadet feels trés chic to us.

Bradley’s Bookshop, as the distinctly English name suggests, is an English-language bookshop, and the kooky logo of one of the King’s guards diving into a good book will have you wondering whether you took a wrong turn and ended up in Green Park rather than in Bordeaux in South West France. The thing that gives it away? No English tearoom could produce such a picturesque selection of patisseries. Obliging staff is happy to order in any title from the USA or UK for bookworms abroad.