Flâneries in Paris: Explore a Corner of Montparnasse

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Flâneries in Paris: Explore a Corner of Montparnasse
This is the 29th in a series of walking tours highlighting the sites and stories of diverse districts of Paris. Simone de Beauvoir liked the crossroads where I began this month’s walk. “I have a strange attachment to the carrefour Montparnasse,” she wrote, referring to the spot where the Boulevard Montparnasse meets the Boulevard Raspail. And so do I. It’s a place to get lost in reveries.  An old photo on La Rotonde’s website shows a scene from soon after the restaurant’s opening in 1911. Tables are jammed in all over the pavement, dominating the intersection of the two boulevards and spilling over with chattering customers. Ties and bowler hats for the men, the tight-bodiced gowns and feathered hats of the ladies just beginning to give way to looser dresses, straw boaters and the cloche hats which would take over in the 20s. It’s a gathering of the leisured classes, some perhaps planning a day at the races, others maybe swapping notes on the previous evening at the opera.      But impoverished writers and artists clustered here too, especially during the 1920s. Rents were cheap, the café-owners allowed them to linger long over one drink, perhaps to pay a bill in kind, with a drawing or a wall painting. I pictured Hemingway in a café corner, sharpening the two pencils he kept in his pocket before tuning out from the hubbub around him and getting lost in a story. I imagined him drinking on a terrace with F Scott Fitzgerald, I pictured Modigliani and Picasso analyzing each other’s work, I wondered if Gershwin ever chatted with Josephine Baker. For they were all “Montparnos.”    La Rotonde. Photo: Marian Jones I admired the red cane chairs with gold trim which adorn the terrace of La Rotonde today and paused to take a photo of its distinctive red canopy with golden lettering. It formed a backdrop to signs pointing to two of the most iconic locations in Paris: right for Saint-Germain-des-Près, left for Montparnasse. Carried away by these romantic names, I decided to become a cliché. Fifteen euros would buy me breakfast at one of Montparnasse’s best-known cafes, notebook ostentatiously open before me. A waitress might cast me a knowing “ah, another wannabe writer” glance, but that would not diminish my excitement one jot!  Inside, the early 20th-century elegance was immediately visible. The dark polished wood, plush red velvet seating and golden lamps showed that the restaurant, said to be a favorite with President Macron, has gone upmarket. Yet the Modigliani prints on the walls recalled the days when impoverished artists gathered there and the waiters turned a blind eye if they pinched the end of a baguette from someone else’s table.  On this particular weekday morning, La Rotonde was curiously empty.  The only customers I saw as I entered were two or three lone businessmen despatching their breakfasts without looking up from their phones.  Modigliani print on the wall at La Rotonde. Photo: Marian Jones
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Lead photo credit : Boulevard Montparnasse street sign. Photo: Marian Jones

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Recently retired from teaching Modern Languages (French and German), Marian now has time to develop her interests in travel and European culture and history. She will be in Paris as often as she can, visiting places old and new, finding out their stories and writing it all up as soon as she gets home. Marian also runs the weekly podcast series, City Breaks, offering in-depth coverage of popular city break destinations, with lots of background history and cultural information. She has covered Paris in 22 episodes but looks forward to updating the series every now and then with some Paris Extra episodes.

Comments

  • Arlene Polangin
    2024-08-08 10:22:01
    Arlene Polangin
    Wonderful commentary! Oh, dear! I must write more? Why is that?

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