Montparnasse is a district of Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. Montparnasse became famous in the 1920s, when artists and writers such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein made it a lively centre for the arts. Many of these artists had studios or lived in or around the area. In addition, up-and-coming painters, such as Henri Matisse and Georges Braque, were drawn to the creative atmosphere. The cafes and bars of Montparnasse were a meeting place where ideas were hatched and mulled over. The cafés of Montparnasse have been immortalized in works by Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus and others. The area is well known for its towering office blocks, which house a number of media and advertising companies. It is also home to the Montparnasse Cemetery, where some of France’s most famous artists and writers are buried.
