Taschen Bookstore in Paris

What Paris has in abundance are art bookstores. From the trendiest and independent ones - like Artazart (read here) - to the most sophisticated ones with their own publications - like Assouline (read here) - the offer is wide and varied. Within this diverse universe, Taschen stands out as the most popular.

Founded in 1980 in Cologne, Germany, by the young Benedikt Taschen, who was just 18 at the time, the store was named Taschen Comics and sold exclusively comics. In 1984, Benedikt bought a surplus stock of 4,000 copies of a book about Magritte and sold them for a very low price. Soon, all were sold, and Benedikt realized the formula for success: art books at friendly prices.

Taschen is a well-known name for anyone interested in art. Their good, beautiful, well-made, and affordable books make perfect gifts or ideal objects for decorating shelves and coffee tables. Joking aside, the publisher helped democratize not just books about famous artists but also about architecture, photography, design, fashion, the gay universe, pop culture, eroticism, cinema, and advertising.

The Taschen store in Paris is located in Saint-Germain on the delightful rue de Buci. Its design, like that of the other 11 stores of the company spread across Europe and the USA, is by French starchitect Philippe Starck (the same designer behind the Mama Shelter hotel and Miss Kô restaurant).

The ambiance is elegant, with subdued lighting and chunky furniture, as if we were in an old library or club privé. Even so, the place makes us feel comfortable enough to spend hours and hours browsing through books.

There, we can find friendly and affordable books (which can make great travel souvenirs) about the greatest artists of all time, whose works we can enjoy in person at Parisian museums: Degas, Da Vinci, Lautrec, Rodin, Van Gogh, Klimt, Monet, Christo. See here for the entire collection of books priced at €9.99.

For those who want to spend a bit more, Taschen also produces luxurious limited edition books priced from €150 to €480,000 (many are already sold out). One of the most famous is the retrospective of photographer Helmut Newton which, due to its weight, came with its own metal display support, price: €15,000. See here for all limited edition books.

TASCHEN Store Paris: 2 rue de Buci, 75006. Open daily from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Metro line 4, station Odéon.

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