Ask any 20 year old in Paris, and they will easily tell you the best clubs, cheapest bars, and flirtiest of places to get drugged up and fucked up. However, I take a quizzical amount of pride in being able to give you a rough history and description of the best libraries and the tourist sites within proximity.
I know what you must be thinking, how is this any different from the American libraries? Well, in truth, its not. Aside from the fact that the building you're sitting in is older than any of the libraries in the states, Parisian libraries and their content is not so much different. Its the fact that you're in a library, in Paris, checking out books in French- books that, might I add, were conducive to the building of French history, the history of human rights, and the international literary community.
Parisian libraries are made of more history- literal and literary. That is, until, I stumbled on The American Library in Paris. This library combined the greatness that is American literature with the surreal reality of being located just two blocks from the Eiffel Tower. Plus, you check your snobby Parisian attitudes at the door and staff is completely friendly- American style! To convey my experience in a more more intellectually arousing fashion, I'll put it this way- I was a happy butterfly in a garden of English and French roses! Or not. But it was heaven. Next to American literary legend F. Scott Fitzgerald, sat novels by Simone de Beauvoir. And next to her sat a Lenny Kravitz CD. And the list goes on and on, until I stumbled on my most prized discovery- an LSAT prep book. Not just one but an array of them dating from 2002-2010. AMAZE BALLS. I checked out two.
In sum, I walked out with two Steinbeck novels- Grapes of Wrath and The Moon is Down in addition to a bunch of LSAT prep books. I don't know anyone else who would write a whole Harry Potter novel on libraries, but can you blame me? I am a livid student, tired of the night life, hungry for some intellect. Just trying to find some place to cultivate my down time away from the screaming mess of bar crawls. And this, addicts and drunkies, is where to be on a Saturday afternoon.
PS: The American Library is a private library, not subsidized by the French government so you do have to pay an annual fee. 100 euros for a regular pass which allows 20 books to be checked out at a time. 65 euros for a student annual pass. 135 euros for a family annual pass. 45 euros for a 4 month pass and 65 euros for a six month pass. read more
