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Any Decent Bookshops And Cd Shops In France?


Guest Hector5

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Guest Hector5

Mrs Hector and I are in France at present, and she is leaving to go back to her day job a little earlier than me. I'm going to do a grand tour, starting from around Dijon, and heading back via everywhere possible to Calais. Sadly some faceless giant internet bookseller has taken over my favourite Paris bookshop (Ars Musicae), leaving me nowhere to browse decent organ books (inventaires etc), music and CDs. Can anyone recommend any decent book, CD and music shops along my route at all? I shall be heading down to Lausanne at some stage as well, so can pretty much go anywhere I fancy.

 

Any recommendations???????

 

Best wishes from a sunny pleasant France

 

Hector

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I remember a massive and totally brilliant CD shop in Paris on the Champs Élysées not so very far below the Arc du on the left hand side as you walk down. My family and I lost a whole afternoon in there a few years ago. I have no idea what its name was, but it was unmissable.

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I used th go to Paris quite a lot, and found cd heaven in the form of a company called FNAC, not sure where, it was on one of the grand boulevards, I am sure a "quick" search would find it

regards

Peter

See

http://www.fnac.com/

for their website, and down on the left-hand side "trouvez un magasin" which lists all of their many branches, 8 in Paris alone.

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See

http://www.fnac.com/

for their website, and down on the left-hand side "trouvez un magasin" which lists all of their many branches, 8 in Paris alone.

 

I'm assuming you're still in Paris but if not- apologies. When the good Mrs W and I were honeymooning there in 2006 I passed a very pleasant half hour or so in Durand's outlet (the address on the fromnt of my Dupre Op 7 says 175 rue Saint Honore) and it is about 10 minutes of Place de la Madeleine. They were very helpful in there and quite tolerant of my Pidgin French. Also try La Flute de Pan, 59 Rue de Rome. There is also another well stocked music shop on the Rue de Rome but its name escpapes me.

 

Hope you enjoy you trip and that you're still in Paris!

 

Charles

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You beat me to it! La Flute du Pan is an excelent sheet music (organ particularly) shop. I can't remembe what the semection of cds was like. I stocked up on a number of things the last time I was there.

Leduc on Rue St H are good and helpful (just west of the Louvre).

 

There's also a secondhand shop: Pugno 19 Quai des Grands Augustins - I got a large batch of Falcinelli and Dupre there a couple of years ago.

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Leduc on Rue St H are good and helpful (just west of the Louvre).

 

There's also a secondhand shop: Pugno 19 Quai des Grands Augustins - I got a large batch of Falcinelli and Dupre there a couple of years ago.

 

Having just got my free bus pass but never visited Paris I hope to rectify the situtation later this year and will, no doubt, find these postings helpful. (Yes, I know my bus pass doesn't cover travel to Paris!) Friends, some interested particularly in violins and another who runs a church music publishing/retailing business speak of a number of excellent music shops, new and second hand, situated quite near each other in Rue de Rome which, I gather, is easily accessible from the Eurostar station.

 

Malcolm Kemp

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A few years ago, I was in Paris in January and had heard of a place out in the Parisien sticks, at the end of the RER line at Robinson. I had bumped into Peter Wright of Southwark Cathedral and a friend of his at St Sulpice on Epiphany Sunday, and I had told him of this place which I had heard of on Piporg-l. We mounted an excursion the next day, and followed the address to a suburban house. However in the barn in the back garden was a treasure trove of organ music, CDs and books. I've had a google to see if I can find it, unsuccessfully, as I can't remember its name, but will try and keep digging. Flute de Pan I concur is pretty good, and there was a small selection of organ music to be found in La Procure near St Sulpice. However my last Parisien music visit was in 2003 so things may well have changed! FNAC are always a good place for CDs- in 1985 I was completing a student year in France within 30 mins of Gare St Lazare and I came home with plenty of LPs from FNAC- a year later and they would have been CDs. I've successfully ordered DVDs (such as the Cochereau tribute disc) from the FNAC.fr website.

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... and there was a small selection of organ music to be found in La Procure near St Sulpice. ...

 

This appears to move on a regular basis. I think that the shop moved again two or three years ago and the organ CDs are (or were) to be found either in the basement or up a couple of steps from the main shop floor.

 

However, there is quite a nice café, just opposite the north west façade tower of S. Sulpice.

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This appears to move on a regular basis. I think that the shop moved again two or three years ago and the organ CDs are (or were) to be found either in the basement or up a couple of steps from the main shop floor.

 

However, there is quite a nice café, just opposite the north west façade tower of S. Sulpice.

 

Café de la Mairie - great, but don't use the Loos! :D

 

DW

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Café de la Mairie - great, but don't use the Loos! :)

 

DW

 

That is the place!

 

I do not recall ever having to experience the facilites there. However, I do recall sitting down to lunch in early October 2001 and ordering a demi-pichet of house red to go with my food. 'How big can it be?' I thought. 'Two or three glasses at the most....'

 

After my seventh generous measure, I felt distinctly woozy and slightly unsteady. I managed to make it back to the coach pick-up point - but I was extremely glad that we were singing at Nôtre-Dame the following day.

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Mrs Hector and I are in France at present, and she is leaving to go back to her day job a little earlier than me. I'm going to do a grand tour, starting from around Dijon, and heading back via everywhere possible to Calais. Sadly some faceless giant internet bookseller has taken over my favourite Paris bookshop (Ars Musicae), leaving me nowhere to browse decent organ books (inventaires etc), music and CDs. Can anyone recommend any decent book, CD and music shops along my route at all? I shall be heading down to Lausanne at some stage as well, so can pretty much go anywhere I fancy.

 

Any recommendations???????

 

Best wishes from a sunny pleasant France

 

Hector

 

Most big towns in France have a 'Harmonia Mundi boutique', always nice to get lost in. Also, the book chain 'Mollat' usually have a very deep selection of CDs (well compared to Borders anyway).

 

David.

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