Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LES MONTPARNOS
Peer long and hard (and long and hard again) around the unfortunate 1960s Gare
Montparnasse complex and glimmers of the area's bohemian past occasionally
emerge: after WWI, writers, poets and artists of the avant-garde abandoned Mont-
martre on the Right Bank and crossed the Seine, shifting the centre of Paris' artistic
ferment to the area around bd du Montparnasse.
It was known as les Montparnos, and artists Chagall, Modigliani, Léger, Soutine,
Miró, Matisse, Kandinsky and Picasso, composer Stravinsky, and writers Hemingway,
Ezra Pound and Cocteau were among those who hung out here, talking endlessly in
the cafes and restaurants for which the quarter became famous. It remained a creat-
ive hub until the mid-1930s.
Historic brasseries that recall les Montparnos' legacy include
La Rotonde Mont-
parnasse
;
Le Select
;
La Coupole
,
with muraled columns painted by artists including
Chagall; Hemingway's favourite, the hedged
La Closerie des Lilas
; and
Le Dôme
,
where Gertrude Stein is said to have encouraged Matisse to open his artist academy
(only for Matisse to later add his voice to the 1935 'Testimony Against Gertrude Stein'
pamphlet, condemning Stein's interpretation of how cubism emerged in her 1933
Autobiography of Alice B Toklas).
Place d'Italie & Chinatown
CLUB
LE BATOFAR
bar 12.30pm-midnight
Tue, to 6am Wed-Fri, 6pm-6am Sat; Quai de la Gare or Bibliothèque)
This much-loved, red-metal tugboat has a rooftop bar that's terrific in summer, and a respec-
ted restaurant, while the club underneath provides memorable underwater acoustics between
its metal walls and portholes. Le Batofar is known for its edgy, experimental music policy
and live performances, mostly electro-oriented but also incorporating hip-hop, new wave,
rock, punk or jazz.
WINE BAR
TANDEM
noon-3pm & 7.30-11pm Tue-Sat;
Cor-
visart or Place d'Italie)
