Enjoy an audio-guided tour of Montparnasse, the heart of Parisian artistic and intellectual life in the first half of the 20th century. As you stroll along the designated itinerary, listen to the commentaries and fun facts that trigger automatically, right where they happened! Follow the route and don't bother reading the maps!
The tour begins at the Montparnasse Tower, in front of the railway station and its numerous cinemas. During the interwar period, the district was the heart of Parisian artistic and intellectual life. It was frequented by many major artists of the 20th century: Picasso, Foujita, Modigliani, Man Ray... From this rich past, Montparnasse has preserved artists' studios, famous cafés, and brasseries. Discover the “bohemian” Montparnasse and the hotel where the surrealist movement was born. Learn about some of the artists' crazy rituals like the "exquisite corpse" game and how the gallery owners gradually moved the artistic milieu from Montmartre to Montparnasse.
The abundant artistic and intellectual life is still present today with the mythical Parisian cinema of art films, mythical cafés: the Select, the Coupole and the Dôme who welcomed authors and writers from all over the world; literary cafés where you can still come across celebrities in the footsteps of Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Apollinaire. Learn about Simone de Beauvoir, the great philosopher and writer who attracted her friend philosophers in the neighborhood, and who would make Montparnasse their headquarter. Discover the birthplace of cubism, dadaism and existentialism and how these artistic movements transformed the life of the district. Discover the golden age of the Dingo American Bar in the 1920s, during the Prohibition era with clients like Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald.
The tours are designed by local and passionate guides. Visit at your own pace and customize your itinerary according to your desires! A short stop at a terrace, a visit to a store or even a craving? You can resume the visit when you want, right where you stopped. Impossible to get lost. The guide indicates clear audio directions to follow and a map can also be viewed if you prefer visual guidance. And if you take a wrong turn, the integrated geo-localization system will bet you back on the right track!
The visit ends near the Luxembourg Gardens.
Audioguided tour of Montparnasse neighborhood
Transportation
