What to do in Paris this summer ? Part 3 – The Raspail Montparnasse hotel offers you a summer stroll in the Montparnasse district.
What to do in Paris this summer ? Part 3 – The Raspail Montparnasse hotel offers you a summer stroll in the Montparnasse district
The Raspail Montparnasse hotel invites you to a walk in the Montparnasse district of Paris this summer.
Quite important in the Artistic history of Paris, we invite you by this walk to discover the Soul of Montparnasse!
A few hundred meters away from the hotel, you will find the Jardin du Luxembourg. This is where our excursion begins :
Little gem of 23 hectares, this garden is ideal to let go and stroll along the basins, or around the boules game players. We find there orchards, rose gardens, greenhouses, tennis courts, chess, remote-controlled boat rentals, puppets theater, pony riding circuits …
And of course you can sunbathe on deckchairs, as we did!
We go on through the Jardin des grands Explorateurs, to admire the beautiful fountain des « Quatre Parties du Monde ». Also called Fontaine de l’Observatoire, it gives us a very good view over the Jardin du Luxembourg!
Once out of the garden, we meet the mythical Closerie des lilas, a brasserie where many artists usually met, like Hemingway, Cézanne, Verlaine, Zola, Gide, Apollinaire, etc.
And now we are following the footsteps of Montparnasse artists
Therefore, we walk to the Montparnasse cemetery. We do not forget of course to go through the Rue Campagne Première where artists such as Rimbaud and Modigliani used to live.
The cemetery, very wooded, stands on the former site of three old farms, on which only remains one mill tower. Also called the cemetery of beautiful letters, here lie Samuel Becket, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Guy Maupassant, Charles Baudelaire, etc.
Once outside the cemetery, we cross the place de Catalogne. For those who, like us, are hungry after this beautiful walk, you will find there beautiful sunny terraces;)
After this stop, we head for the Atlantic Garden, green haven cleverly hidden above the tracks of the Montparnasse station. This roof garden is rather charming, and more importantly, still little known and extremely poorly reported, is really peaceful!
You will also find there sports facilities: tennis courts, ping-pong and weight machines.
To finish our summer walk in the Montparnasse district, we go to the 21st, avenue du Maine, to visit the Chemin de Montparnasse, or “cité des artistes”. It is a discreet path abundantly decorated with flowers, bordered with rustic art workshops. We can feel here the bohemian spirit of the roaring twenties. Indeed, this green and secret cul-de-sac was frequented by great artists such as Picasso, Kandinsky, Modigliani, Matisse etc …
During the First World War, Marie Vassilieff opened there a free canteen. And during the Second World War, it was a resistance base!
This place, rich in history, delighted us with its sweet atmosphere from another time…
After this beautiful summer day walking around Montparnasse and its surroundings, we retire to the hotel Raspail Montparnasse to get a well-deserved rest!
Following the next article : “What to do in Paris this summer ? – Part 4 “.
