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The neighborhood
Besides being the main business district on Paris’ Left Bank, Montparnasse also happens to be one of the French capital’s most attractive quarters when it comes to leisure. A lot of painters -like Marc CHAGALL- from the Surrealist Period lived there during the interwar period and expressed their talents.
For sightseeing
Whether you’re a culture fan or simply love to stroll, you will love exploring the neighborhood, with its many bars and restaurants, playhouses and movie theaters. It also has fantastic shopping facilities (Galeries Lafayette Montparnasse) and nightlife. Our recommendations:
- Musée du Montparnasse. This museum illustrates the richness of Montparnasse’s artistic history and portrays the emblematic Ecole de Paris. Exhibitions are renewed regularly.
- Rue de la Gaîté, for its theaters, cabarets and music-hall culture (Cabaret Bobino, Théâtre Montparnasse, Comédie-Italienne).
- Rue d’Odessa, for its countless pancake houses (a specialty from France’s Brittany region). Traditionally, the Montparnasse neighborhood is home to Parisians hailing from Brittany because trains from Montparnasse station travel back and forth to this northern region.
- Tour Montparnasse (or Tour Maine-Montparnasse) is a 59-story-high building – one of the tallest in France. Its fastest elevator (out of a total of 25) will take you to the 56th floor in just 38 seconds (an altitude of approximately 600 feet). The panoramic view of Paris from this vantage point is quite unique!
- Rue Daguerre is a partly pedestrian street, just a few minutes away from the hotel. It is famous for its outdoor market.
- The Odéon quarter, in the 6th district, home to Théâtre de l’Odéon (the national theater where Sarah Bernhardt first took to the stage). This part of Paris is also famous for its many pedestrian streets lined with small stores, art galleries, museums and movie theaters. We would particularly recommend Rue Saint-André des Arts.
Ariane Hotel is also close to various means of transport, which gives guests easy access to all parts of Paris: Luxembourg gardens and the Latin quarter, Champs-Elysées and Arc de Triomphe, Opéra or Tuileries gardens. Even Versailles castle is direct from Montparnasse train station.
For business
The hotel is perfectly located, a stone’s throw from the business district in Montparnasse. Thanks to public transport, it will only take you 10 minutes to get to Porte d’Orléans (direct by subway) or Parc des Expositions (trade fair center) at Porte de Versailles (via tramway line T3); you are also just 40 minutes away from La Défense and 45 minutes from Parc des Expositions de Villepinte (direct on RER line B).
Historical background
Montparnasse had its heyday in the 1920s - les Années Folles or “crazy years” – when many painters came and lived here, lured by low rent for lodging and workshops alike. Dali, Modigliani, Picasso, Zadkine, Fitzgerald and Man Ray, among others, were part of a dynamic community. The bistrots and cafés they regularly frequented (le Dôme, la Closerie des Lilas, La Rotonde, le Sélect) still reflect the creativity of that era (la Coupole’s decoration has not changed to this day).
Zoom on: La Ruche, in Passage Dantzig, in Paris’ 15th district. La Ruche (which translates as “the beehive”) is an artists’ community much like Bateau-lavoir, in northern Paris’ Montmartre area. It’s one of the most prominent artistic centers of the 20th century. La Ruche was created in 1902 to give penniless painters a chance to achieve success. It has housed many great artists, including Modigliani, Soutine, Brancusi, Léger and Chagall (one of its most illustrious lodgers). Many of these artists had fled the pogroms in central and eastern Europe. It is said that Soutine arrived at Paris’ train station Gare de l’Est with the words “La Ruche, Paris” scribbled on a scrap of paper, which he showed to passers-by. It originally had 140 workshops; today it has about sixty. Unlike other artists’ communities, La Ruche is no longer open to the public: only residents and the rare chosen few are allowed to enter.
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