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Life at Shakespeare and Company
Paris, France
October, 2003
So what is it like living at the most famous bookstore in the world? Quite and interesting experience. To stay at the Tumbleweed hotel you must first speak to George, the owner. He will ask you a few questions, where your from, what you do, how long you want to stay, etc, and from your answers and how crowded the store already is, he will decide if you can stay. If you are a writer, your usually in. Artists and Musicians have an OK chance. Pretty girls who smile are always welcome. The cast of characters who stay at Shakespeare come from all over the world, but almost all speak good English. Most people sleep in the library on the different benches under the books. We have no shower and only a Turkish toilet for a bathroom. Very spartan to say the least. Important people, mainly writers get to stay in the third floor apartment which has a kitchen and a regular bathroom. The tumbleweedis who stay in the bookstore don't get to use those facilities so they have to use the public showers and eat lots of 2 Euro sandwiches. Currently I'm staying in the antequarium section of the bookstore. This is on the street level and is filled with old books and a little cot that I sleep on. I do have the advantage of a door and a key, but since it is on the street it is very cold and you hear footsteps all night long. Often you hear drunks, people coming from the local clubs and occasionally loud arguments. You get used to this and soon you sleep right through such disturbances. The bookstore opens at around 10:00AM and closes at Midnight and since you live in a store, you can't go to bed until the shop closes. I work in the shop in the morning, usually until around 1:00PM and the rest of the day I spend out on the streets of Paris. George doesn't like when the Tumbleweedis hang at the bookstore all day and night. If your not working, you should be out of the store. This becomes the biggest challenge and creates camaraderie among Shakespeareis inhabitants. You will often find a group of us in the evening at a local cafe sipping coffee or beer, staying warm, reading or discussing current events. You would think that the French waiters would really get sick of us because most of us are poor, only buy one or two drinks, we can't afford the food and we hang out for hours. Hell, we can't go home to bed until midnight! But they don't. It's a strange thing in France. It seems they kind of feel sorry for us and at the same time see our liberty. Most of us are artists of some sort and they respect that. When I return to Paris after a few months absence all of the head waiters are always glad to see me and come over to shake my hand. Life at the bookstore is hard, and very tiring, but is also addictive. First off, you live in one of the most beautiful sections of the city, right across from Notre Dame. You seem to meet a new and often interesting person everyday. George picks the Tumbleweeds wisely so they are often just returning from some foreign county, just finishing a novel or working to produce music like me. Birds of a feather. The hard conditions bring us together and we form a strange cult in the heart of Paris. And everyone is welcome. You really have to see it to believe it. So I Personally invite ypu come and experience the shop. George likes to call the store, "a socialist utopia that pretends to be a bookstore." What other bookstore can you go to that has three floors of books but only the books on the first floor are for sale. It may be too much for you to live in the store, just come by, grab a book you like and take a seat on one of our many benches and watch a slice of humanity wander by.
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