Librairie Jousseaume, a bookshop in the Galerie Vivienne since 1826

Librairie Jousseaume opened in 1826 in the Galerie Vivienne, a covered arcade that had only just been inaugurated. Louis-Auguste Marchoux, president of the Chamber of Notaries, had the gallery built in 1823 to designs by the architect François-Jacques Delannoy, between rue Vivienne and rue des Petits-Champs.

One of the busiest arcades in Paris, it then housed tailors, bootmakers, wine sellers, opticians and print sellers; the staircase at no. 13 led to the former home of Vidocq. At the bookshop, regulars came to read the latest serialised novels.

François Jousseaume runs the shop today, founded by his great-grandfather and handed down from generation to generation. It keeps its wooden shopfront and old-style lettering. The gallery, left to the Institut de France in 1859 by Ermance Marchoux, has been a listed monument since 1974, with its glass roof, its dome and its mosaic floor.

In the 2nd arrondissement, near the Bourse, the shop offers books from the 19th and 20th centuries: literature, history, poetry, illustrated books, theatre and music, some 40,000 titles. There are also prints and engravings, and a stall of paperbacks outside the window. It is a member of the antiquarian booksellers’ association.