14th arrondissement

Highlights: Montparnasse · Denfert-Rochereau · Parc Montsouris · Cité universitaire · Observatoire · Catacombes

A land of scholars, artists and strollers, the 14th arrondissement saw the paths cross of the astronomers of the Observatoire, the painters of Montparnasse and students from the world over. Between the legendary cafés of the boulevard du Montparnasse, the foliage of the parc Montsouris and the secret villas of its lanes, it cultivates a rive gauche art of living made of inspiration and serenity.

Science beneath the stars

In 1667, at the instigation of Colbert, Louis XIV had the Observatoire de Paris built, entrusted to the architect Claude Perrault. Oriented along the Paris meridian, long the reference of French cartographers, it remains the oldest observatory still in activity in the world.

This scientific vocation lastingly marked the neighbourhood, in the continuity of a rive gauche devoted since ever to study and to knowledge.

The empire of the dead

On the eve of the Revolution, the unhealthiness of the Parisian cemeteries led to the transfer of the bones into former underground quarries. From 1786, the Catacombes de Paris thus received the remains of several million Parisians, in a mineral labyrinth become one of the most singular places in the capital.

These galleries recall that the subsoil of the 14th was long worked for its stone, leaving beneath the streets a network of quarries that shaped the history and the urban development of the arrondissement.

Montparnasse, capital of the arts

At the turn of the 20th century, the modest rents and the vast studios drew to Montparnasse a bohemia come from the world over. Modigliani, Soutine, Chagall or Zadkine settled near the Ruche, while painters, poets and models of a flamboyant generation crowded the terraces of the Dôme, the Rotonde and, from 1927, the Coupole.

Between the two wars, Montparnasse became the centre of gravity of modern art and of Parisian nightlife. Of this effervescence there survive the great cafés, the artists' colonies and a creative memory that still pervades the atmosphere of the neighbourhood.

Gardens, villas and a City of the world

Under the Second Empire, the engineer Alphand laid out in 1869 the parc Montsouris, a vast English-style landscaped garden given to the inhabitants of southern Paris. Around it were drawn picturesque streets and flowered villas — the square de Montsouris, the villa Seurat — prized by artists and architects.

In 1925 there opened, at the edge of the arrondissement, the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, whose pavilions with architectures from the world over have welcomed students and researchers ever since, prolonging the cosmopolitan and scholarly vocation of the neighbourhood.

Living in the 14th today

From Denfert-Rochereau, watched over by Bartholdi's Lion de Belfort, to the quiet streets of Plaisance and Petit-Montrouge, the 14th combines animation and gentleness of living. The tour Montparnasse, raised in 1973, marks its northern entrance, while its markets, its workshops and its preserved villas maintain a village atmosphere.

To live in the 14th is to choose a calm and inspired rive gauche, where the memory of artists and scholars is matched by the tranquillity of the gardens and the quiet charm of the lanes, a stone's throw from the heart of Paris.