Librairie Delamain, a bookshop on rue Saint-Honoré since 1708

Librairie Delamain, the oldest bookshop in Paris, opened in 1708 under the arcades of the Théâtre-Français at the Palais-Royal. Its founder, André Cailleau, set up shop at the foot of the Comédie-Française, and the house has never strayed far from it.

Over the centuries the shop welcomed Restif de La Bretonne, Alexandre Dumas, Maupassant and Georges Clemenceau, then Roger Martin du Gard, Jean Paulhan and Léon-Paul Fargue. Jean Cocteau, Colette, Michel Foucault and Louis Aragon followed. In 1955 François Truffaut left with Jules et Jim by Henri Pierre Roché, which he would later film.

After the fire at the theatre, the bookshop moved in 1906 to 155 rue Saint-Honoré, facing the Comédie-Française. Run by Jean-Nicolas Barba and then by Pierre-Victor Stock, it took the name Delamain in 1921, when Maurice Delamain and Jacques Chardonne bought the Stock publishing house. It joined the Gallimard group in 1986.

On place Colette, in the 1st arrondissement, its tall oak bookcases hold new and antiquarian books side by side: 25,000 titles in 90 square metres, a section devoted to Paris and some 5,000 volumes from the 18th to the 20th century. Seven booksellers advise readers, and authors visit throughout the year.