Underground & cool · Artist studio reconstruction · € · 14e · Montparnasse & Denfert
Institut Giacometti
The Fondation Giacometti runs this small Art Deco townhouse opposite Montparnasse cemetery, its centrepiece a faithful reconstruction of Alberto Giacometti's cramped studio — the actual painted walls, furniture and plaster figures transplanted from the workshop he kept for forty years.
The Institut closes between exhibitions, so check the calendar; bags are barred.
Getting there
- Raspail46300 m · 6 min walk
- Denfert Rochereau46RER B320 m · 6 min walk
- Mouton Duvernet4580 m · 11 min walk
Walks that pass nearby
- Where the Writers Livedstop 4 of 6 · 110 m
Beauvoir, 11bis Rue Schoelcher
Beauvoir lived in a top-floor studio here from 1955 until her death in 1986, looking directly across at Montparnasse Cemetery (where she's now buried with Sartre). She wrote The Mandarins, Les Belles Images, and her Memoirs from this room. Bookshelves, a futon-like bed, photographs of her travels — preserved by friends after her death.
Private apartment, no plaque. Stand on the street opposite to see her windows, then walk into the cemetery (entrance one block south, free) — Beauvoir and Sartre's joint grave is in division 20, easy to find from the map at the entrance.
- Paris Undergroundstop 1 of 6 · 290 m
Catacombs
1, place Denfert-Rochereau. The bones of approximately six million Parisians, transferred between 1786 and 1860 from overcrowded cemeteries to the limestone quarries beneath the 14th. The accessible visitor section is 1.5 km long, 20 m below street level.
Book a timed ticket online — same-day queues are 2+ hours. Bring a jacket: 14°C year-round. The signed visit ends at a different exit (Rue Rémy-Dumoncel) than the entrance, three blocks south of where you went in.
- Literary Cafésstop 6 of 7 · 650 m
Le Dôme
1898. The Lost Generation's eastern outpost on the Carrefour Vavin. Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Man Ray, Kiki de Montparnasse. Now mostly a serious seafood brasserie — but the vintage coffered ceiling is unchanged.
Even if you don't eat, walk in for thirty seconds — the entrance vestibule has framed period photographs of the regulars. The seafood plateau is the move at lunch; for a quicker visit, sit at the bar and order a half-dozen Belon oysters.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Solar HotelEco budget hotel€€ · 6 minA self-described 'solidarity' hotel off Rue Daguerre near Denfert-Rochereau: one flat all-inclusive rate, an organic breakfast taken in the garden, and a rack of bicycles guests borrow for nothing. No stars by choice.
- Hôtel AiglonArt Deco design hotel€€ · 7 minA 1930s building on Boulevard Raspail that takes its Art Deco seriously: a 2023 redo brought 46 bespoke bathroom mosaics and an entrance fresco by Mathilde Jonquière. Raspail métro across the road, Montparnasse cemetery a block south.
- Hôtel Graphik MontparnasseStreet-art design hotel€€ · 10 minA three-star whose conceit is literal: each of the 42 rooms carries a fresco painted on site by street artists, set against Art Deco bones and a cocktail bar downstairs. A short walk from Gare Montparnasse.
- Hôtel Raspail MontparnasseArt Deco boutique hotel€€ · 11 minAn Art Deco building at the Raspail–Montparnasse crossroads, in the quarter the painters actually worked — Modigliani, Man Ray, the Montparnos. Several upper rooms look toward the Montparnasse tower.
The district · 14e
Montparnasse & Denfert — The other Left BankThe Lost Generation's Montparnasse brasseries, the Catacombs, Parc Montsouris, and crêperies clustered by the station. Quietly residential, with a literary past it wears lightly.
Best for: Calm-seekers who still want the Left Bank and good train links.
Everything we've verified in the 14e →How we verified this
Confirmed currently operating as of August 2026,cross-checked against 1 source:
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