Parisian Bande Dessinee shop window
Superhero Librairie Paris comics store 3, originally uploaded by byronv2.
Couldn't resist snapping some graphic novels - or Bande Dessinee - in this Parisian comics store window, although since the French treat comics as a proper art form you can find a lot of BD in mainstream stores too. In fact wandering round the Saint Michel area I found some good material in a bookstore there which has almost as many titles as you'd expect in a specialist comics store, both kids and adults titles alike, including work from Brit creators like Eddie Campbell translated into French (and currently unavailable in English in fact - the French clearly appreciate good art more than English language readers). Coincidentally the middle book of the three on the bottom left, Chronique Birmanes by Guy Delisle, is one I just edited a review of from one of our European contributors over on the Forbidden Planet blog.
I picked up a couple of BD journals at a newstand including one with a collection of work by some of the biggest names in the business who have won at the prestigious Angouleme festival in the last three decades, from Trondheim to Crumb. I also treated myself to a hardback album of work by Berberian and Dupuy who won the Gran Prix at January's Angouleme (some of their work has been translated by the excellent Drawn & Quarterly crew from Canada) and some work by Jodorowsky - my French isn't brilliant and its also rusty but I'm hoping the pictures help with context for the bits I can't quite get; worth a shot anyway.