Librairie des Alpes

In the sixth arrondissement of the French capital, on the left bank of the Seine, is the “Librairie des Alpes”: a bookstore that connects city and mountains. Maps, photographs, posters, illustrations, and of course, books – both antiquarian and new – fill the space. No wonder this spot in the heart of the French metropolis was the perfect place for us to celebrate the launch of our first magazine issue.

The “Librairie des Alpes” is anything but an ordinary bookshop. Step through the door on Rue de Seine, and you enter alpine terrain. Carefully curated finds and rarities related to the world of mountains and mountaineering sit alongside new releases in alpine literature, including our own guides and books. The man behind it all is Antoine Ricardou, a passionate alpinist himself. About a year ago, he took over the shop, which has existed in its current form since 1933.

For professional and amateur mountaineers alike, the “Librairie des Alpes” has long served as a base camp: literature, maps and copper engravings – some over a hundred years old and no longer found anywhere else – have found a home here.

Books on spectacular first ascents of eight-thousanders, a 1934 guidebook by mountaineering pioneer Luis Trenker or a current guide to the highest alpine huts, complete with Strava tracks – no book, no map ends up here by chance. The mountains and all their stories get to call this beautiful little corner of Paris home.

The fact that the “Librairie des Alpes” has held its ground in Paris for over 90 years, far from the French Alps, is likely due in part to city dwellers’ longing for the outdoors, for wilderness. For unspoiled nature. For high peaks that make everyday life in the valley feel small and insignificant. For places of retreat that let people breathe.

And Antoine Ricardou knows a thing or two about those places of retreat. Beyond running the “Librairie”, he is also an architect, designer and co-founder of the French creative studio “Atelier Saint-Lazare”.

With painstaking care and to a great extent by himself, he restored the 200-year-old farmhouse “La Praise” in the French Alpine region of Haute-Savoie. With “Atelier Saint-Lazare”, he brought new charm to the “Grand Hotel Belvedere” in Wengen – never losing sight of each building’s rich history along the way. 

City. Mountains. An authentic alpine way of life. That is what the “Librairie des Alpes” is all about. And that is what Montamont is all about, too.

So when Antoine Ricardou invited us to present our magazine at his Paris bookstore and celebrate the launch there, it was a perfect fit. On a hot summer evening in June 2026, we got to present our first issue among the shelves of what might be the best mountaineering bookshop in the world – and for us, that evening brought things full circle.