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Getting Oriented | Top Attractions | Worth Noting
Updated by Bryan Pirolli
Once a warren of artists’ studios and swinging cafés, much of Montparnasse was leveled in the 1960s to make way for a gritty train station and the Tour Montparnasse, Paris’s only—and much maligned—skyscraper. Over the years, this neighborhood has evolved into a place where Parisians can find more reasonable rents, well-priced cafés, and the kind of real-life vibe lost in some of the trendier sections of the city.
Despite its soulless modern architecture, the Tour Montparnasse has an upside—after all, the rooftop terrace provides a prime panoramic view of Paris. It’s okay to feel smug during your ascent, as you consider yourself savvy for having avoided long lines at Tour Eiffel; afterward, congratulate yourself with a fancy cocktail at Le Bar Américain on the 56th floor.
The other star attraction of Montparnasse is belowground. The mazelike tunnels of the Paris Catacombs contain the bones of centuries’ worth of Parisians, moved here when disease, spread by rotting corpses, threatened the city center.
The café society that flourished in the early 20th century—Picasso, Modigliani, Hemingway (where didn’t he drink?), Man Ray, and even Trotsky raised a glass here—is still evident along the Boulevard du Montparnasse. The Art Deco interior of La Coupole attracts diners seeking piles of golden choucroute.
Along the Boulevard Raspail you can see today’s art stars at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, or pay your respects to Baudelaire, Alfred Dreyfus, or Simone de Beauvoir in the Cimetière du Montparnasse.
Getting Oriented
Top Reasons to Go
Catacombs. History buffs, lovers of the macabre, and the just plain curious, can make an unforgettable descent into Paris’s underground bastion of bones; claustrophobic folks, however, need not apply.
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Connoisseurs of cutting-edge art will appreciate what’s on view here. The building itself was designed by Jean Nouvel, the darling of Paris architecture.
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. Photography fans shouldn’t miss the chance to see Cartier-Bresson’s restored atelier, featuring a small collection of his work plus photographs from young artists.
The Tour Montparnasse. Even though this 680-foot black behemoth of a skyscraper is one of the most hated buildings in Paris, its open-air roof terrace is still one of the best spots to see the City of Light.
Best Cafés
Backstage Café.
Settle into a comfy chair and order a creation from the extensive cocktail list. This hot spot is on one of Montparnasse’s most lively streets, aptly named Rue de la Gaîté (or “Cheerful Street”). | 31 bis, rue de la Gaîté, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–43–20–68–59 | Station: Edgar Quinet.
La Rotonde.
This café, a second home to foreign artists and political exiles in the 1920s and ‘30s, has a less exotic clientele today, but it’s still very pleasant to have coffee on the sunny terrace. | 105 bd. Montparnasse, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–43–26–48–26 | Station: Vavin.
Le Café Tournesol.
Red, orange, and yellow furnishings make the Tournesol a warm alternative to some of the trendier or stuffier cafés that have opened in the neighborhood. Being positioned on a corner, it has ample outdoor seating—and stays open until 3 am. | 9 rue de la Gaité, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–43–27–65–72 | Station: Edgar Quinet.
Le Sélect.
Isadora Duncan and Hart Crane used to hang out here; now it’s a popular spot for a postcinema beer or a well-made cocktail. | 99 bd. Montparnasse, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–45–48–38–24 | Station: Vavin.
Getting Here
Montparnasse includes the 14e and 15e arrondissements. Take Line 4, 6, 12, or 13 to Montparnasse-Bienvenue for the Tour Montparnasse; walk along the Boulevard du Montparnasse to hit the cafés. Take Line 4 or 6 to the Raspail métro stop for the Cimetière du Montparnasse or the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. To visit the Catacombs, take the 4 or 6 Lines to Denfert-Rochereau. Other nearby métro stops include the Edgar Quinet stop on the 6 Line and the Gaîté stop on the 13 Line.
Making the Most of Your Time
If you can get to the top of the Tour Montparnasse on a clear day, you’ll be rewarded with a vista unmatched in all of Paris. The viewing deck is open until 10:30 pm, so you can watch the lights sparkle on the Eiffel Tower at the top of the hour. The Catacombs and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson are closed Monday. The Cimetière du Montparnasse is open daily. La Coupole is perfect for a celebratory evening, but make reservations for this famous brasserie well in advance.
Top Attractions
Cimetière du Montparnasse.
Many of the neighborhood’s most illustrious residents are buried here, a stone’s throw from where they lived and loved: Charles Baudelaire, Frédéric Bartholdi (who designed the Statue of Liberty), Alfred Dreyfus, Guy de Maupassant, and, more recently, photographer Man Ray, playwright Samuel Beckett, writers Marguerite Duras, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir, actress Jean Seberg, and singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. | Entrances on Rue Froidevaux, Bd. Edgar Quinet, Montparnasse | 75014 | Mid-Mar.–early Nov., weekdays 8–6, Sat. 8:30–6, Sun. 9–6; early Nov.–mid-Mar., weekdays 8–5:30, Sat. 8:30–5:30, Sun. 9–5:30 | Station: Raspail, Gaîté.
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
There’s no shortage of museums in Paris, but this eye-catching gallery may be the city’s premier place to view cutting-edge art. Funded by luxury giant Cartier, the foundation is at once an architectural landmark, a corporate collection, and an exhibition space. Architect Jean Nouvel’s 1993 building is a glass house of cards layered seamlessly between the boulevard and the garden. Along with high-quality exhibitions of contemporary art, the foundation hosts Soirées Nomades, or performance nights, featuring contemporary dance, music, film, or fashion on Thursday evenings. Some are in English. Check the website for times and details. | 261 bd. Raspail, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–42–18–56–50 | www.fondation.cartier.com | €9.50 | Tues. 11–10, Wed.–Sun. 11–8 | Station: Raspail.
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Photography has deep roots in Montparnasse, as great experimenters like Louis Daguerre and Man Ray lived and worked here. In keeping with this spirit of innovation, Henri Cartier-Bresson, legendary photographer and creator of the Magnum photo agency, opened this foundation supporting contemporary photography in 2003. The restored 1913 artists’ atelier holds three temporary exhibitions each year. Be sure to go to the top floor to see a small gallery of Cartier-Bresson’s own work. | 2 impasse Lebouis, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–56–80–27–00 | www.henricartierbresson.org | €6; free on Wed. 6:30 pm–8:30 pm | Tues.–Sun. 1–6:30, Wed. 1–8:30, Sat. 11–6:45 | Station: Gaîté, Edgar Quinet.
Artists, Writers, and Exiles
Paris became a magnet for the international avant-garde in the mid-1800s and remained Europe’s creative capital until the 1950s. It all began south of Montmartre, when Romantics, including writers Charles Baudelaire and George Sand (with her lover, Polish composer Frédéric Chopin), moved into the streets below Boulevard de Clichy. Impressionist painters Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Mary Cassatt had studios here, near Gare St-Lazare, so they could commute to the countryside. In the 1880s the neighborhood dance halls had a new attraction: the cancan, and in 1889 the Moulin Rouge cabaret was opened. Toulouse-Lautrec designed posters advertising the neighborhood stars and sketched prostitutes in his spare time.
The artistic maelstrom continued through the Belle Époque and beyond. In the early 1900s Picasso and Braque launched Cubism from a ramshackle hillside studio, the Bateau-Lavoir, and a similar beehive of activity was established at the south end of the city in a curious studio building called La Ruche (the beehive, at the Convention métro stop). Artists from different disciplines worked together on experimental productions. In 1917 the modernist ballet Parade hit the stage, danced by impresario Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, with music by Erik Satie and costumes by Picasso—everyone involved was hauled off to court, accused of being cultural anarchists.
World War I shattered this creative frenzy, and when peace returned, the artists had moved. The narrow streets of Montparnasse had old buildings suitable for studios, and the area hummed with a wide, new, café-filled boulevard. At No. 27 rue Fleurus, Gertrude Stein held court with her partner, Alice B. Toklas. Picasso drew admirers to La Rotonde, and F. Scott Fitzgerald drank at the now-defunct Dingo. In the 1930s La Coupole became a favorite brasserie of Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, and Lawrence Durrell.
The Spanish Civil War and World War II brought an end to carefree Montparnasse. But the literati reconvened in St-Germain-des-Prés. Café de Flore and Deux Magots had long been popular with an alternative crowd. Expat writers Samuel Beckett and Richard Wright joined existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus in the neighborhood, drawn into the orbit of literary magazines and publishing houses.
Although Paris can no longer claim to be the epicenter of Western artistic innovation, pockets of outrageous creativity still bubble up. The galleries on Rue Louise Weiss in Tolbiac and open-studio weekends in Belleville and Oberkampf reveal the city’s continuing artistic spirit.
Les Catacombes.
This is just the thing for anyone with morbid interests: what you’ll see after a descent through dark, clammy passages is Paris’s principal ossuary, which also once served as a hideout maze for the French Resistance. Bones from the defunct Cimetière des Innocents were the first to arrive in 1786, when decomposing bodies started seeping into the cellars of the market at Les Halles, drawing swarms of ravenous rats. The legions of bones dumped here are stacked not by owner but by type—rows of skulls, packs of tibias, and piles of spinal disks, often rather artfully arranged. Be prepared for stairs and a long underground walk. Wear appropriate shoes, too, as the floor can be damp. The good news is that you won’t be shrouded in tomblike darkness since the tunnels are well lighted. Among the nameless 6 million or so are the bones of Madame de Pompadour (1721–64), laid to rest with the riffraff after a lifetime spent as the mistress of Louis XV. Unfortunately, one of the most interesting aspects of the catacombs is one you probably won’t see: cataphiles, mostly art students, have found alternate entrances into its 300 km (186 miles) of tunnels and here they make art, party, and raise hell. TIP Arrive early as the line can get long. Only 200 people can descend at a time | 1 av. du Colonel Henri Roi-Tanguy, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–43–22–47–63 | www.catacombes-de-paris.fr | €8 | Tues.–Sun. 10–5 (last entry at 4) | Station: Métro or RER: Denfert-Rochereau.
Musée Zadkine.
The sculptor Ossip Zadkine spent nearly four decades living in this bucolic retreat near the Jardin du Luxembourg, creating graceful, elongated figures known for their clean lines and simplified features. Zadkine, a Russian-Jewish émigré, moved to Paris in 1910 and fell into a circle of avant-garde artists. His early works, influenced by African, Greek, and Roman art, later took a Cubist turn, no doubt under the influence of his friend, the founder of the Cubist movement: Pablo Picasso. The museum displays a substantial portion of the 400 sculptures and 300 drawings bequeathed to the city by his wife, artist Valentine Prax. It was renovated in 2012 to celebrate its 30th anniversary. There are busts in bronze and stone reflecting the range of Zadkine’s style, and an airy back room filled with lithe female nudes in polished wood. The leafy garden is worth the trip alone: it contains a dozen statues nestled in the trees, including The Destroyed City, a memorial to the Dutch city of Rotterdam, destroyed by the Germans in 1940. | 100 bis, rue d’Assas, Montparnasse | 75006 | 01–55–42–77–20 | www.zadkine.paris.fr | Free; fee (varies) for temporary exhibitions only | Tues.–Sun. 10–6 | Station: Vavin, Notre-Dame-des-Champs.
Tour Montparnasse.
One of continental Europe’s tallest skyscrapers offers visitors a stupendous view of Paris from its 56th-floor observation deck, and the upwardly mobile can climb another three flights to its open-air roof terrace. Completed in 1973, the 680-foot building attracts 800,000 gawkers each year because, on a clear day, you can see for 40 km (25 miles). A glossy brochure, “Paris Vu d’en Haut” (“Paris from on High”), explains what to look for. Have a cocktail as you drink in the view at Le Bar Américain on the 56th floor, which also serves light food, or splurge on dinner in Le Ciel de Paris restaurant. The tower sparkles to life every evening thanks to pulsating lights installed in 2011. | Rue de l’Arrivée, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–45–38–52–56, 01–40–64–77–64 Le Ciel de Paris | www.tourmontparnasse56.com | €13 | Apr.–Sept., daily 9:30 am–11:30 pm; Oct.–Mar., Sun.–Thurs. 9:30 am–10:30 pm, Fri. and Sat. 9:30 am–11 pm; last elevator 30 mins before closing | Station: Montparnasse Bienvenüe.
Worth Noting
Closerie des Lilas.
Now a pricey bar-restaurant, the Closerie remains a staple of all literary tours of Paris. Commemorative plaques are bolted to the bar as if they were still saving seats for their former clientele: an impressive list of literati including Zola, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Beckett, and, of course, Hemingway. (Hemingway wrote pages of The Sun Also Rises here and lived around the corner at 115 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.) Although the lilacs that once graced the garden—and shaded such habitués as Ingres, Whistler, and Cézanne—are gone, the terrace still opens onto a garden wall of luxuriant foliage. There is live music in the piano bar. | 171 bd. du Montparnasse, Montparnasse | 75006 | 01–40–51–34–50 | www.closeriedeslilas.fr | Station: Vavin; RER: Port Royal.
Jardin Atlantique.
Built above the tracks of Gare Montparnasse, this park nestled among tall modern buildings is named for its assortment of trees and plants typically found in coastal regions near the Atlantic Ocean. At the far end of the garden are small twin museums devoted to World War II: the Mémorial du Maréchal-Leclerc, named for the liberator of Paris, and the adjacent Musée Jean-Moulin, devoted to the leader of the French Resistance. Both feature memorabilia and share a common second floor showing photo and video footage (with English subtitles) of the final days of the war. Entrance is free, though temporary exhibitions cost a few euros. In the center of the park, what looks like a quirky piece of metallic sculpture is actually a meteorological center, with a battery of flickering lights reflecting temperature, wind speed, and monthly rainfall. | 1 pl. des Cinq-Martyrs-du-Lycée-Buffon, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–40–64–39–44 | www.ml-leclerc-moulin.paris.fr | Jardin weekdays 8–dusk, weekends 9–dusk (hrs vary depending on season); musée Tues.–Sun. 10–6 | Station: Montparnasse Bienvenüe.
La Coupole.
One of Montparnasse’s most famous brasseries, La Coupole opened in 1927 and soon became a home-away-from-home for Apollinaire, Cocteau, Satie, Stravinsky, and (again) Hemingway. In the 1980s the brasserie was bought by the Flo chain, which preserved the superb Art Deco interior, including pillars by Chagall and Brancusi. The place retains its hustle and bustle—with scurrying waiters and the overwhelming noise of clinking glasses and clattering silverware. | 102 bd. du Montparnasse, Montparnasse | 75014 | 01–43–20–14–20 | Weekdays 8 am–midnight, weekends 8:30 am–1 am | Station: Vavin.
Marché Edgar Quinet.
This excellent street market sells everything from fresh fruit to hot crêpes to wool shawls on Wednesday and Saturday. It’s a good place to pick up lunch to go before strolling through Cimetière du Montparnasse across the street. | Bd. du Edgar Quinet at métro Edgar Quinet, Montparnasse | 75014 | Station: Edgar Quinet.
Place du 18-Juin-1940.
Next to Tour Montparnasse, this square commemorates an impassioned radio broadcast Charles de Gaulle made from London on June 18, 1940. In it he urged the French to resist Nazi occupiers (who’d invaded the month prior), thereby launching the French Resistance Movement. It was also here that German military governor Dietrich von Choltitz surrendered to the Allies in August 1944, ignoring Hitler’s orders to destroy the city as he withdrew. | Montparnasse | Station: Montparnasse Bienvenüe.
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