Rue de l'Odéon

He officially renamed it Shakespeare and Company.

And he did that specifically to invoke the memory of the original Shakespeare and Company, which had been founded in 1919 by Sylvia Beach over on Rue de l'Odéon.

That renaming is a vital piece of the puzzle, isn't it?

Oh, absolutely.

But let's get back to the bookshop in Paris.

Strictly speaking, Beach's first shop was not on Rue de l'Odéon at all.

She opened Shakespeare and Company at 8 Rue du Poitrain in November 1919.

Encouraged by the French bookseller Adrien Monnier and moved in 1921 to 12 Rue de l'Odéon across from Monnier's shop, Beach and Monnier dubbed their corner of the left bank Odeonia and Joyce nicknamed the shop Stratford-on-Odéon.

Shakespeare and Company lent and sold books banned elsewhere, including Lady Chatterley's Lover and Became the Haunt of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.

The story of that first bookstore ended in December 1941.