I update that thread because sadly a lot of bookshops are closing in Paris, so:
- The Assimil bookshop doesn't exist anymore.
- Gibert Jeune (place Saint-Michel) was closed after the Coronavirus lockdowns.
- Only Gibert Joseph, 26 boulevard Saint Michel (beautiful language section on the 4th floor) is still surviving, but there are less and less second-hand language books (their stock in now online on the
rakuten and amazon french site).
- By the way, not far from Gibert Joseph, a few blocks away, there is a chinese bookstore:
You Feng (45 rue Monsieur le Prince, 75006 Paris)
- About 1 km away, there is also a russian bookstore : Editeurs réunis (11 Rue de la Montagne Ste Geneviève, 75005 Paris): they are centered mainly on religious stuff, but you can find cheap russian books, sometimes.
- The other russian bookstore is the "librairie du Globe" near Bastille: the russian books are really expensive (twice the price of online bookshops) and they sell only new books (no second-hand books). The only advantage of that bookstore is that you can speak russian with the sellers, if you want. They also sell translated books in french (novels, poetry, essay, etc), french and russian textbooks to learn russian and art books.
- Also in the quartier latin, there is a polish bookstore : Librairie Polonaise 123 Bd Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris: They sell new books and magazines, nothing second-hand, afaik.
- The Fnac at the Forum des Halles is still opened: there is langage section in it, textbooks (Assimil and others), a few bilingual books (russian, english, italian, spanish///french), and a little section of english books (mainly best-sellers).
But, Gibert Joseph is better than Fnac: more books, more languages, second-hand books, more diversity (even if it's less diversity than a few years ago).