Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) | Richelieu

7 bookstores, libraries and literary landmarks in Paris for bibliophiles to bookmark - SilverKris

"Housed at the Richelieu site, the newly revamped 19th-century reading room is a showpiece of architectural splendour: the four-storey Salle Ovale is flooded with light from a vast glass roof ringed by oculi, lined with green opaline Art Deco lamps and topped by a frieze inscribed with names of famous libraries. The site offers more than 20,000 books for browsing, including a notable collection of around 9,000 comics and graphic novels, and the upstairs Mazarin Gallery rotates displays of rare manuscripts — recent highlights ranged from a bejewelled medieval psalter to a handwritten fragment of Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell." - Olivia Ho