“Tea and Tattered Pages”

24 rue Mayet
Montparnasse

On a overcast-afternoon wander in Saint-Germain, desperate for something warm and cheery, I discover this small, quiet yet vibrant coin de Paris, safely tucked out of sight on a plain, cream brick street - as if unwilling to be found.

Opening the door, I am greeted by the soft clanging of doorbells and then a slight nod and obligatory bonjour from an older French lady who sits reading behind the cluttered counter. Conscious of my stuttering French, I blurt out salon de thé and she points me into a backroom, past piles and piles of unsorted literary gems. The salon is similarly cluttered but feels remarkably familiar. Unlike the darker front room, a large window lights up the few tables that sit expectantly, lining the wall of books. The menu is simple and cheap, as are the endearing plastic tablemats however it is the selection of teas that really excite the imagination. In a setting that feels something like your (good) grandma’s kitchen transplanted into the middle of a grungy, West-End bookstore, a few bucketfuls of tea seems wholly appropriate.

There is of course, no wifi to speak of, nor any steady flow of customers - in a good few hours there only one other person entered the salon - and thus if the literature brimming from the walls doesn’t interest you so much, speculation on how such an underrated coin de Paris makes anything resembling a profit will certainly keep you occupied. Better still though let yourself get carried away by the thousands of mentors and their words and ideas that sit patiently waiting on the crumbling shelves around you.