14th Arrondissement - Montparnasse: Paris

The 14th the spookiest arrondissement in Paris, what with all the dead smart people at the Cemetary of Montparnasse and all the bones of dead 'Innocents' stacked in the Catacombs located near Denfert- Rochereau – a place that was once called D'enfer (literally the word means hell). This neighborhood is Paris at its most Bohemian -- a word that is used to describe intellectuals and artists who are almost always very poor. If you can buy yourself a dinner out once a week -- you are not Bohemian and probably shouldn't be living in the 14th. Here are the cafés where Pablo Picasso, Ernst Hemmingway and Max Ernst spent their days – that was not posh neighborhooding neighbor St. Germain des Pres (although they did have some hangouts there too). This is where everyone who was nobody but became somebody after they were dead, lived out their poverty. It is not uncommon for the neighborhood's bakers to do midnight open calls for bread giving away their 'restes'to poor artists or squats. There are endless galleries and cinemas like L'Entrepot. There are quaint cobblestone streets near Metro Pernety and hundreds of artists ateliers and workshops holding vernissages almost nightly. Of course there is the not so spectacular Gare du Montparnasse its Tower. Nothing to see really there -- go deeper into this arrondissement, it might be scary but there are treasures to be dug up. © NileGuide