Montparnasse

Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine River, centered on the intersection of the Boulevard de Montparnasse and the Boulevard Raspail.

The name Montparnasse stems from the nickname "Mount Parnassus", given to the neighborhood by students who came there to recite poetry. In the 18th century, the Boulevard Montparnasse was laid down and during the French Revolution many dance floors and cabarets opened their doors.

The neighborhood became famous at the beginning of the 20th century when it was the heart of intellectual and artistic life in Paris with its legendary cafés: the Dôme, the Rotonde, the Coupole, and others.

In Montparnasse many great minds gathered: Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Amedeo Modigliani, Man Ray, Chaim Soutine, Guillaume Apollinaire, Ossip Zadkine, Max Jacob, Tsuguharu Foujita, Ernest Hemingway, Leon-Paul Fargue, Alberto Giacometti, Andre Breton, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Henry Miller, Joan Miro and more.

While the area attracted people from all over the world who came to experience the bohemian lifestyle, it also became home for political exiles such as Lenin and Trotsky.

The quarter also contains the Pasteur Institute, the Montparnasse Cemetery, and ancient catacombs.