Paris (3)

While in Paris I went to a couple of other bookshops. The first was Comptoir de l'image in the Marais, which I had heard was an amazing photography bookshop. It turned out to be a tiny place, crammed with pile upon pile of books – definitely an impressive selection of titles on art / fashion / photography, some new, some old & rare. Magazines, too. But everything crowded & in vast piles. You couldn't really look at anything properly, and there's nothing more frustrating than that. It seemed like more of a collector's shop. The owner, I assume, was rather anxiously watching a couple who had got there before me and were browsing, and there was a bit of a 'don't touch' vibe, although because he was occupied with them, I didn't get to talk to him to find out if he was friendly or not. The one thing I did really like about his shop was the music – great playlist going on in the background. But I didn't really want to hang around, so I left.

The other book-related place I ended up in was Colette, a crazy/stupid/trendy shop on the rue St. Honore. It's ridiculous on so many levels – you have to go there to really appreciate the sheer poseur-y-ness of it, but when you actually look, they have some really good stuff. It's all in the edit. There's a brilliant collection of books, with some cool little hand-made things in there as well as a good selection of graphicky things. They absolutely don't let you take photographs in there, but I managed to sneak one.

http://www.colette.fr/