Finding the Lost Generation in Montparnasse

(47 reviews)

Paris audio tour: Finding the Lost Generation in Montparnasse

This is a 1.9mi walking tour

It takes an average of 90 mins to complete.

Paris

France

$11.99

Access all 33 locations offline with the VoiceMap app

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About the Tour

This tour takes you through the haunts of writers and artists in 1920s Paris, including Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Amedeo Modigliani and Jeanne Hebuterne, Kiki de Montparnasse, the photographers Man Ray and Berenice Abbott, and Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company. We'll see where they lived, where they partied, where they had affairs, and even where they fought.

Tour Producer

Philippa Campsie

4 tours

Philippa Campsie lived in Paris as a student, studying French history and literature at the Sorbonne, and staying in a chambre de bonne with a view of the tip of the Eiffel Tower. She never got the city out of her system after that and returns regularly with her husband, Norman Ball. Since 2010, she and Norman have written about Paris on a blog called "Parisian Fields" (https://parisianfields.com/). They like to get beyond basic tourist information, and draw on her experiences in urban planning and his knowledge as a historian of technology to explain features of the city's streets, and tell the stories of people who contributed to the life of the city. Philippa started creating tours for VoiceMap in 2015. Currently, she is carrying out research in Paris on the history of the education of blind people (the first school for the blind was founded in Paris) and the invention of braille. One day she hopes to create a tour for visually impaired visitors to the city.

Preview Location

Location 1

RER Station Port Royal

You are standing near the southern tip of the Jardin du Luxembourg, where Ernest Hemingway often used to stroll on his way to visit Gertrude Stein. On this walk we are going to explore the places that were familiar to writers and artists in the 1920s, particularly expatriates ... You are standing near the southern tip of the Jardin du Luxembourg, where Ernest Hemingway often used to stroll on his way to visit Gertrude Stein. On this walk we are going to explore the places that were familiar to writers and artists in the 1920s, particularly expatriates from the United States. If you’ve seen the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris, you’ll have encountered a few of them already.

Gertrude Stein coined the term “Lost Generation” to describe Hemingway and his fellow expatriate writers after the First World War. Hemingway didn’t agree with this epithet, although he quoted it in his first novel. Hemingway actually found his voice as a writer in Paris, and so did many of his contemporaries.

But there were losses along the way. In fact, near the RER station is the Hotel Beauvoir, with the initials HB on the awnings. You can see it on the right as you face the station entrance. The HB might almost stand for Hadley and Bumby, Hemingway's first wife and his son, who moved to the hotel when the marriage ended. There were also voices that were lost in the din because other voices shouted louder. We’ll try to find a few of them today.

Hello, my name is Philippa Campsie and I’ve created this walk to explore the part of Paris known as Montparnasse and some nearby neighbourhoods. In the 1920s, artists and writers could live here quite cheaply. Americans in particular flocked here after Prohibition made the United States less appealing for those who enjoyed a party. But they were simply following a long tradition of artists who found this area congenial, and as we go along, I will mention some of those earlier artists, too.

Back then, the area was still in transition from a countrified suburb of small houses and gardens into an urban area with large apartment blocks. There were lots of cafes, some of which are now famous as historic gathering places for artists and writers. Just past the Hotel Beauvoir in the direction of the gardens, you will see a large modern university residence. When the Hemingways lived in this neighbourhood, that site held a one-storey dance hall with an Oriental facade. It was called the Bal Bullier. The only trace of that name now is the cafe Bullier, kitty-corners across the intersection.

Let's start walking now. Look for a building with a small dome on the roof at the corner and a statue on the sidewalk in front of it. Take the crosswalk towards it.

As you walk, you're crossing the old meridian that once spanned all of France from north to south. To your left, at the far end of the boulevard, you will see the Paris Observatory that was France's equivalent of the Greenwich Observatory in terms of setting time. Ahead of you is the Closerie des Lilas, our first destination.

While you walk to it, let me explain how this works. VoiceMap uses your location to play commentary automatically. There may be some silence along the way, and that's normal. You can just put your phone in your pocket, and focus on your surroundings. You’ll hear my voice again when you reach each destination, and I'll give you directions to keep you on track. Read More

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Major Landmarks

Montparnasse Cemetery
Théâtre de l'Odeon

Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
75005 Paris, France
Total distance

3km
Final location
4-22 Rue de l'Odéon, 75006 Paris, France
Distance back to start location

1km

Directions to Starting Point

The tour starts at the Port Royal station. This is on RER Line B. The RER is a commuter rail system, but inside Paris, you can get on it with a Metro ticket.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

You will pass many famous eateries: Closerie des Lilas, La Rotonde, Le Dome, Le Select, La Coupole. Some are now restaurants rather than cafes, but most have places where you can sit outdoors and enjoy a coffee or a glass of wine.

The rue de Montparnasse is considered a good place to go for crepes and there are at least half a dozen creperies there. And Angelina's at the Musee du Luxembourg is recommended for anyone with a sweet tooth.

Best time of day

You can take this tour any time, but if you want to evoke the sense of the 1920s, try it when it is quiet -- early in the morning, or perhaps on a Sunday evening.

Precautions

Cross the streets at marked crosswalks and obey the signals.

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“This app has become my go-to app for audio tours. I pretty much use it for every trip and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend VoiceMap for travelers to truly experience cities.”

App Store Review

“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”