I was lucky enough to stumble on this shop during my most recent visit to Paris. Just open 2 months, Georges & Co pays homage to the written word by stocking some of the most beautiful fountain pens, stationery, journals and ooh la la inks! This place is a must for all you fountain pen/ink snobs/stationery lovers. It's a gorgeous shop with a state of the art ink bar. When you walk in, your eyes become riveted to the ink bar on the left, filled with colors that you can't find in cartridges or regular pens. The "bar" is actually made up of liquor dispensers, what you might find in airport lounges dispensing gin or vodka. Here, they are filled with unique colored inks. You can select among several bottle sizes but the square glass 6€ one is my favorite. The shopkeepers puts the bottle up to the nozzle and voila! Owner Delphine Mercier told me that she named the shop after her grandfather, George, who loved to write and write with beautiful things. The shop boasts that it is the "ultimate writing experience" and I am a believer. The shop has pretty and funky journals made by French manufacturers so you don't have the feeling you will find the same thing when you go back home. Upstairs is the kids area which has French story books and crayons and stationery. This place is so magnificent that I went back twice to stock up on the unique inks poured directly from the bar.
I have gone to many different stationery stores written up in Paris guidebooks but I always left feeling disappointed. The hardest part for me at George & Co was choosing from the myriad of ink colors and then trying to figure out how to pack all the glass bottles so they wouldn't break. Answer: stuff a bottle in a sock, wrap the inks in several plastic bags, put the dirty laundry/cheap clothes in with the inks so if there is a leakage issue, no worries! I think you could find a gift for just about anyone here. There's also a nice array of amazing French briefcases and leather goods by Mignon. An alligator skin satchel with silver handles caught my eye. Perhaps when the economy gets better... read more