It felt like a dream, but last week I hopped on the Eurostar to Paris.

Two hours after leaving St Pancras the wife and I landed at Gard du Nord and set off into the city.

I had promised in advance not to drag her around too many bookshops but I did insist on calling in at Shakespeare and Company, in the 5th arrondissement, on Paris's Left Bank.

The bookshop is pretty famous, after it was launched by George Whitman in 1951 in its current location, so I won't go on too much about the history.

If you want a detailed account, there is probably no better book than Jeremy Mercer's Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs.

Ever since I heard you could bed down for the night in the bookshop in exchange for a few hours' work, I have wanted to visit the place, and I wasn't disappointed.

The shop is a labyrinth of nooks and crannies and is jam-packed with second-hand books.

I particularly liked the reading library on the first floor, where you can while away a few hours reading books from the collection, which unfortunately you are not allowed to buy.

There was plenty of John Fowles and before I knew it the missus was tucking into a copy of The French Lieutenant's Woman.

I grabbed The Half-Hearted by John Buchan, in blue boards and pubished by Hodder in 1900, and there was lots of other good stuff, including The Music School, a 1967 collection of John Updike short stories published by Andre Deutsch.

Some of the volumes contained a Sylvia Beach memorial sticker. She ran the first Shakespeare & Co bookshop at 12 rue de l'Odeon, from 1919 to 1941.

The current incarnation is now run by George Whitman's daughter Sylvia Beach Whitman, and I'm sure I caught a glimpse of her working behind one of the counters.

After leaving my finished copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on the Eurostar, I was ready for the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and Shakespeare and Company sold me a stamped copy for 11 euros.

Apparently, the bookshop does writing courses and hosts poetry readings. I'd love to go back one day but for now I will treasure the memory.

Did anyone see the TS Eliot documentaries on BBC2 over the weekend?

I think the guy out of Peep Show did a cracking job.