14th Arrondissement - Montparnasse
Montparnasse was in the 1920s what Montmartre was 20 years before: the cultural centre of Paris and therefore the world. Even at the time, however, one suspects that the Parnassian hill was not as pretty and gently bucolic as the "Hill of Martryrs" a few miles to the north (for one, because the "hill" had already been flattened in medieval times), and urban regeneration has since treated the quarter less than kind. (The area around Montparnasse train station is generally recognized as one of the great disasters of modern townscaping.)The remnants of Montparnasse's heyday are largely concentrated around Rue Gaiete: remnants such as the Bobino theatre where Josephine Baker once performed her "exotic dances". Hemingway's notorious "men's room encounter" with Scott Fitzgerald took place in the Closerie des Lilas, and many of the watering holes further up the Boulevard
Montparnasse – La Rotonde, Le Select – were equally favourites of the "Lost Generation". Samuel Beckett lived in an apartment on 28 Blvd. St Jacques, and you can still visit him in Paris: on the Montparnasse cemetery where he is buried with many other famous folks (including also a few Americans such as Susan Sontag and the actress Jean Seberg).
Montparnasse was in the 1920s what Montmartre was 20 years before: the cultural centre of Paris and therefore the world.
Even at the time, however, one suspects that the Parnassian hill was not as pretty and gently bucolic as the "Hill of Martryrs" a few miles to the north (for one, because the "hill" had already been flattened in medieval times), and urban regeneration has since treated the quarter less than kind. (The area around Montparnasse train station is generally recognized as one of the great disasters of modern townscaping.)
The remnants of Montparnasse's heyday are largely concentrated around Rue Gaiete: remnants such as the Bobino theatre where Josephine Baker once performed her "exotic dances". Hemingway's notorious "men's room encounter" with Scott Fitzgerald took place in the Closerie des Lilas, and many of the watering holes further up the Boulevard Montparnasse – La Rotonde, Le Select – were equally favourites of the "Lost Generation".
Samuel Beckett lived in an apartment on 28 Blvd. St Jacques, and you can still visit him in Paris: on the Montparnasse cemetery where he is buried with many other famous folks (including also a few Americans such as Susan Sontag and the actress Jean Seberg).
Nightlife
Theatre de la Cite Internationale
Attractions
Église Réformée Paris Plaisance
Église Saint-Pierre de Montrouge
Piscine Municipale Aspirant Dunand
Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson
Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain
Restaurants
Hotels
