This bookstore is part of the history of Saint-Germain des Prés. Max Ernst, André Breton, poet Henri Michaux as well as hundreds of other artists through the decades have liked to come here. Push the door, next to the Café de Flore and head straight for the mezzanine, where all the art books are. You are almost sure to find anything you are looking for, even the most obscure title. It was renovated in 1992 by designer Sylvain Dubuisson. La Hune has been offered fortunes to sell and become another high end store like Cartier, Vuitton or Armani, its neighbors. (if you are hungry or want a good pastry, go to the nearby Monoprix. Take the escalator downstairs. The "M Café", which looks like a Terrence Conran store, has a nice design and great organic food + alovely plats du jour.

50, rue de Rennes. 75006. 01 45 48 18 08) 170, Blvd Saint-Germain. 75006. 01 45 48 35 85. Mo Saint-Germain des Prés.

The ministry of Culture has launched several first class stores dedicated to art books. The one in the Hôtel de Sully, in the Marais, is particularly specialized in art photography. The one in the Tuileries garden, in the vaulted former royal guards dining hall, is entirely dedicated to gardening and nature.

Librairie Monum. Hôtel de Sully.62, rue Saint-Antoine. 75004. 01 44 61 21 75. Mo Saint-Paul, Bastille.

Librairie jardins. Jardin des Tuileries. Grille de la Concorde. Place de la Concorde. 75001. Paris. 01 42 60 61 61. Mo Concorde.

The new Pompidou center bookstore, reopened in January 2000, was designed by the center's architect, Renzo Piano. It is a peaceful and serene place where it is easy to look at books in detail. The Flammarion bookstore is one of the best for modern art, architecture and design. It has 10,000 titles and no less than 300 art magazines and reviews.

Centre Pompidou. 19, rue Beaubourg. 75004. 01 44 78 43 22. Mo Châtelet, Rambuteau.

The little store with the huge table in the middle and its gallery downstairs, if the best photography bookstore in the city. If you don't find it here, don't look anywhere else (maybe at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, but its selection is much smaller). You can look at everything for as long as you want. No one will bother you, but you'll have to read with people moving all around you in the cramped store.

14, rue Saint-Sulpice. 75006. 01 46 34 04 31. Mo Odéon.

Right on one of the most beautiful plazzas in Paris, half a block from the Luxembourg garden, the very best store dedicated to architecture and design in the city. It has all the big (and small) books published in the world, biographies of little known architects as well as everything to built an ecologically correct house or the best book on Frank Gehry's buildings.

7, Place de l'Odéon. 75006. Tel: 01 44 41 15 75 Mo Odéon, Luxembourg.

This beautiful store in the museum of decorative arts, in the Louvre, is specialized in books about architecture and craft. It also sells limited editions of some of the artworks in the museum as well as contemporary objects, especially pottery, glass and ceramics. The bookstore has also artists toys and objects for the table.

105-107, rue de Rivoli. 75001. 01 42 96 21 31. Mo Louvre.

The French equivalent to Barnes & Nobles or Borders, in the U.S., FNAC has a very large selection of about everything one can call art. And the chain offers discount prices on every book. The mega store on the Champs Elysées is also open until midnight daily as well as the Fnac Café. We like the Fnac des Ternes, housed in a former department store, at the corner of the ave Niel and the ave des Ternes, not far from the Etoile.

Galerie du Claridge. 74, ave des Champs Elysées. 75008. 01 53 53 64 64. Mo Franklin Roosevelt.

In the middle of the night you suddenly feel the urge to read Purple, Dealer de Luxe, oyster, rank, spoon homme or wish u were here? No sweat, just head for OFR, the city's most amazing magazine stand. Worth the trip even if you like reading The National Geographic more than arena. www.ofrpublications.com

30, rue Beaurepaire. 75010. 01 42 45 72 88. Mo République. 64, rue Tiquetonne. 75002. Mo Etienne Marcel.

This isn't a typo--just a bad pun. Mona Lisait is one of the best bookstores in the city for used art books. It has a huge selection of everything your heart desires.

9, rue St-Martin. 75004. 01 42 74 03 02. Mo Rambuteau.

Also a great place with deep discounts on art books. A visit here can be an exhaustive tour of the world's great art in reproduction.

33, blvd du Temple. 75003. 01 48 04 56 05 Mo Filles du Calvaire

Benedikt Taschen, the man who has transformed the market for art books, with beautiful and affordable volumes, has just opened his first bookstore in the city. In the heart of Saint-Germain des Prés, the bookstore offers everything in the Taschen catalogue, from the giant Helmut Newton "Sumo" book, to his most recent soft cover collection. You can read as much as you want (many spend a lot of time in front of the erotic books section), no one will bother you.

2, rue de Buci. 75006. 01 40 51 70 93. Mo Odéon, Saint-Germain des Prés.

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