- Tucked away
is Shakespeare and Company Books.
Hi Sylvia.
- Hello.
- [Narrator] Long a
favorite of book lovers,
the shop was started by
an American idealist.
- Shakespeare and Company started in 1919
by a formidable woman called Sylvia Beach.
Her bookshop became kind of a center
for American expats like
Hemingway, Fitzgerald,
and a lot of French writers
like Paul Valéry as well.
- In 1944, Sylvia closed her store
rather than sell books to the Nazis.
After the war was over,
American George Whitman opened a new store
and soon paid tribute to Sylvia,
using the Shakespeare and Company name.
And then further honored her,
naming his daughter
who now runs the store,
Sylvia Beach Whitman.
Today Shakespeare and
Company is a literary haven,
and home to what George
called Tumbleweeds.
The Tumbleweeds are aspiring writers,
who for years have had the chance
to work and live in the shop.
The store's ground floor is a labyrinth,
with fascinating titles tucked
in every nook and cranny.
The second floor of Shakespeare's
Books is the library.
Here, you're greeted
with a quote, overhead
which says "be not
inhospitable to strangers
lest they be angels in disguise."
And the next room is perhaps
my favorite in the whole shop.
In here, we have one of the many beds
on which the Tumbleweeds sleep,
and we also have a piano.
I've been here several times
when talented young pianists
have been performing,
and it's been absolutely magical.
(classical music)
If you're looking to explore
something a little bit different in Paris,
Shakespeare and Company is
surely the place to see.
Viking: let us share a bit of the real 
Europe with you.
