The Famous Montparnasse Cafés of Paris

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Historic Montparnasse Cafés – A Unique Paris Experience

The roaring Twenties were roaring indeed, and there is no place where they roared louder and laughed longer than in the historic Montparnasse cafés of Paris, so I went to check them all out.

Where is Montparnasse?

Montparnasse is located in the 14th arrondissement near the 6th by Vavin Metro Station. The area radiates out from the crossroads of Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes. 

In the 1920s it was the epicentre of les Années Folles, the Mad Years, and the cafés were a hotbed of decadence.

Today, they’re still some of the most famous cafés in Paris and still going strong. Here’s a guide to the best of them (and some juicy gossip on what went on there).

Scandalous Montparnasse Café Culture

Personally, I’m sorry I missed the Lost Generation of the Twenties. It must have been mad. While I could try to recreate the jaded craziness of the times I doubt it would be the same.

Oh, sure, I could flash my breasts for three francs like Kiki de Montparnasse, a Montparnasse café regular, did in the 1920s.

And I suppose I could venture into a few historic Parisian cafés intending to, as the poet Max Jacob put it, “sin disgracefully,” but the Lost Generation would remain lost.

That’s why, when I found myself in the 6th arrondissement and saw how close it was to the Boulevard du Montparnasse where the decadent magic once happened, I wasn’t hearing a Paris-is-so-wonderful-in-the-sunshine song in my heart, but more of a do-I-bother-revisiting-Montparnasse refrain.

Why Visit Montparnasse?

Here’s the question: Is there any point in hanging out at a Monparnasse café when no one is going to eat glass (like Joseph Kessel at La Coupole), argue over a trial of Italian anarchists (like Isadora Duncan at Le Select) or dance naked in a lit-up basin (like Kiki de Montparnasse)?

Or is it just going to be depressing because you missed all the fun? And who were the Lost Generation anyway?

The Lost Generation in Paris

Gertrude Stein coined the term ‘Lost Generation’ and Ernest Hemingway used it in his marvellous novel The Sun Also Rises – my favourite book in the world.

If you don’t know what it means, substitute ‘lost’ for ‘we-are-dead-inside-because-of-the-war-and-there-is-another-war-coming-so-let’s-party’ and you’ll quickly get the idea.

The Lost Generation (to use a sweeping generalization) refers to that manic interwar period, particularly the 1920s, when Paris was swollen with expat writers, artists, poverty-stricken intellectuals, wealthy heiresses and political exiles.

Why Did the Lost Generation Come to Paris?

People were drawn by a low exchange rate and the spirit of daring and freedom that existed in the City of Lights.

Their love for cheap bars and café culture is one of the reasons there are so many fascinating famous Paris cafés today.

So Much Happened in Montparnasse

The heart of this tragically-tinged fun was the Left Bank neighbourhood of Montparnasse.

Rents were cheap in here, and Montmarte, that big hill to the north where the previous generation of absinthe-swilling Impressionist artists in Paris such as Degas and Renoir used to live, was so done.

La Rotonde – Artists and Revolutionaries

Address: 105 Boulevard du Montparnasse.

While I’d hesitated to dive into the remains of Montparnasse café culture, I perked up at the thought of eating at La Rotonde.

Opened in 1911, La Rotonde brasserie was the haunt of bolsheviks and Picasso and Modigliani and almost any would-some-day-become-famous expat you can think of.

Hemingway hated La Rotonde, though he went there often enough. I suppose it was conveniently near to his old Montparnasse flat above a sawmill at 113 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.

What he said about La Rotonde was that, “on entering you get the same feeling as when entering the bird house of a zoo.”

And I say, “Whoohoo! Bring on the birds!” Isn’t that the point of going to historic Paris cafes?

Kiki – The Queen of Montparnasse

Of all the birds fluttering through the Rotonde, the most colourful was Kiki de Montparnasse.

She was a voluptuous French model and cabaret singer with a cropped black bob, porcelain skin, catlike eyes and a wickedly debauched approach to life.

The lover of the Surrealist photographer, Man Ray, Kiki was a woman after the darkest part of my rebellious heart.

Her eyelashes were shaved and re-drawn on according to her moods. Her eyeshadow might be copper or bright blue. She scorned underwear.

Disowned by her mother at the age of 14, she had lived on the streets before becoming an artist’s model. She got into fights and was prone to flashing her garters or more (see note about scorning underwear above).

Dinner at La Rotonde

No one was flashing any body parts as I cut into my filet de boeuf au poivre at La Rotonde, but the evening was clear and the glowing signs of the brasseries and historic Paris cafés lit up the boulevard, bringing it to life.

I tried to imagine Kiki at the next table or dancing in the street with a drink in her hand, but I couldn’t.

I could only see La Rotonde in the present: the red banquettes, the bottle of Prestige Chateau Puech-Haut at my table, the Modigliani prints on the walls and waiters rushing around with plates of steak tartare and frites.

A Concentration of Historic Paris Cafés

The next day I found myself returning to the Boulevard du Montparnasse. While I hadn’t yet found the spirit of the 1920s Montparnasse, I hadn’t given up trying.

The Best Montparnasse Cafés

Trying to pick your favourite Montparnasse café is like being asked to name your favourite book (except that’s easy because, as I mentioned, mine is The Sun Also Rises).

The point is, visitors in search of a historic Montparnasse café are spoiled for choice. Just head towards the intersection of Boulevard du Montparnasse and Boulevard Raspail, where the most famous are situated.

Le Dome -A Refuge for the Bohemian Elite

Address: 108 Boulevard du Montparnasse.

One of the first of the great expat cafés in Paris was Le Dôme Café, also called the Café du Dôme.

It opened in 1898, but time marches on and now it’s a seafood restaurant with a coveted Michelin star.

It was hugely popular back in the day, patronized by writers such as Henry Miller and Jean Paul Sartre.

Hemingway, however – who really was quite crusty – said that the Americans who frequented it “are nearly all loafers,” (which is probably why it would suit me very well).

But Le Dôme was too fancy for my afternoon tea break so I considered other choices.

La Closerie des Lilas – A Famous Parisian Literary Haven

Address: 171 Boulevard du Montparnasse

Hidden behind greenery and more secluded than the other Montparnasse cafés, La Closerie des Lilas was Hemingway’s “home café,” a place to write in rather than pose.

Steps away from his apartment on rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, it’s where he worked on The Sun Also Rises and where F Scott Fitzgerald read him an early draft of The Great Gatsby.

“The only decent café in our neighbourhood was La Closerie des Lilas,” Hemingway wrote, “and it was one of the best cafés in Paris.”

It’s hard to argue with that but as I had no intention of writing or doing anything productive, I thought I’d head for La Coupole instead.

 

La Coupole, Paris – An Iconic Art Deco Café

Address: 102 Boulevard du Montparnasse

Opened in 1927 and known for its mosaics and pillars painted by “minor masters of the Roaring Twenties” (the website’s words, not mine), La Coupole is an art deco landmark in Paris.

Josephine Baker came here with her pet leopard, and our old friend Kiki de Montparnasse splashed naked in La Coupole’s centrepiece luminous basin (which has since made way for a sculpture).

James Joyce drank whiskeys by the fistful and the author Joseph Kessel caused a sensation by eating the glasses his drinks were served in.

I was almost inside when I saw the outdoor terrace of Le Sélect across the street and knew I’d found my spot.

Café Le Select – A Historic Montparnasse Hangout

Address: 99 Boulevard du Montparnasse

When Café Le Select opened in 1925 it was an instant success, in part because you could drink there 24 hours a day.

The terrace, with its green and white woven chairs looked lively but not too crowded, and since there were plenty of women sitting solo there I didn’t feel like a pariah for being on my own.

Not that I needed to feel self conscious about being solo at Le Select.

Did Kiki de Montparnasse need an escort when kicking up her skirts? Or Isadora Duncan when she threw a saucer across Le Select during an argument?

What about the writer, Hart Crane, who was thrown into jail for fighting with the waiters over a bill?

Even Hemingway was known to show up at Le Select for breakfast and I don’t think he minded sitting alone as he claimed to avoid the “vice and collective instincts of the collection of inmates” here.

Bring On The Vice and The Inmates

Still, I could use some collective vice, I thought, digging into my duck liver on toast. Bring on the ghosts.

And just like that I could picture it, Le Select in its heyday: the unshaven expats sitting nose to nose with socialites and prostitutes, the stained notebooks and sketchbooks falling open on tables. The smell of smoke and spilled wine.

I could even hear it, or at least I imagined I could, the brawls and the shouting and back slapping and laughter, as if it were all floating under my nose like a thread in the wind.

Famous Paris Cafés Live On

Then I thought of the dark side of being a free spirit, how Kiki collapsed at 52, her body worn out from alcohol and cocaine, how her funeral was paid for by the cafe owners of the 6th arrondissement and how Le Select and its cronies have managed to live on, so long after the Lost Generation stopped dancing.

“Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be,” Simone Signoret, a Cafe Le Select regular, famously titled her autobiography, and maybe she was right.

The Death and Rebirth of Montparnasse

So I let the ghosts of Montparnasse go.

It was enough to feel the silky crunch of duck liver and toast on my tongue, to watch the parade of people passing by and to think how wonderful Paris was in the sunshine, especially in Montparnasse.

Travel tips for exploring Montparnasse and the Left Bank in Paris

Other historic Paris cafes of the We are the Lost Generation variety:

• Café de Flore – 172 Boulevard Saint-Germain
• Les Deux Magots – 6 Place Saint-Germain des Prés

Read more about Top Places to Visit in Europe or Visiting Paris: an easy travel guide.

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