A meeting place for intellectuals since the 19th century, Montparnasse has welcomed the biggest names in cultural life, including international ones such as Picasso, Miró, Joyce and Hemingway. Known for its chic cafés, its train station, its tower that dominates Paris, its artists' studios, its cemetery... this bohemian district that has become residential is a must-see destination in Paris.
It is at 17^e century that the name Mount Parnassus was born. It was the students, chased out of their district, the Pré-aux-Clercs, by Queen Margot, who gave this wild place the ancient name of Mount Parnassus, the sacred home of Apollo and his muses. They made it their favorite domain and came to recite verses. From the Revolution onwards, cafés and cabarets multiplied at the edge of the capital. Around 1900, artists, poets and avant-garde writers settled on the left bank, especially in Montparnasse where Alfred Jarry and the Douanier Rousseau had already settled. Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Paul Fort, Modigliani, Soutine, Chagall, Léger, Hemingway, Stravinski, Satie, Picasso, Picabia, Kisling, Rilke, Maïakovski, Tzara, Man Ray, Duchamp, Cocteau, Aragon, Triolet and many others followed. The Hotel Istria welcomed many of these artists, including the star couple Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon. On leaving the hotel, the adjoining building at 31bis is an Art Deco marvel designed by the architect André Arfvidson who, in 1910, designed one of the most beautiful facades in Paris.