Guide Tour of the Montparnasse district, Paris, France
Montparnasse district famous for the artistic effervescence that took place there during the Roaring Twenties. This vibrant, authentic neighborhood, once flocked with artists and writers, retains many reminders of its bohemian past. On the Left Bank of the river Seine, it boasts cultural sights, foodie streets with iconic bistros and cafés and leafy parks. Today the area is most known for Skyscraper Tour Montparnasse and Gare Montparnasse station.
One of the most interesting and vibrant of Paris’ diverse neighborhoods, Montparnasse is also soaked in literary and artistic history. Dominated by the boldly modern Montparnasse Tower, the area’s bustling boulevards are populated by cafés and brasseries where famous Parisian artists, writers, poets, musicians and performers gathered and exchanged ideas, particularly prior to World War II.
The Mount Parnassus was levelled to construct the Boulevard Montparnasse in the 18th century. During the French Revolution many dance halls and cabarets opened their doors. Later, many artists from very different countries were attracted by the intact influence of Paris. Montparnasse, a district that is still relatively fallow, offers them workshops at low rents and an environment of inexpensive cafés that facilitates sociability, emulation and mutual aid.
The Universal Exhibition of 1889 and the already rich artistic life of Montmartre attracted many artists who chose this popular district more in the center of Paris and which was to become the hub of modernity. Pablo Picasso was one of the first to move there. Montparnasse was to know its peak in the 1920s, the Roaring Twenties. It was then the heart of intellectual and artistic life in Paris, with its cafés that will go down in the history of art.
The “Montparnos” quickly establish a creative and libertarian atmosphere there, and attract sponsors, not only French, in search of new talent. In this globalized community that would form the School of Paris, creativity was welcomed with all its quirks and provocations, each new arrival being welcomed as the promise of artistic renewal.
Montparnasse’s traditional cafés, bars and bistros were frequented by some of the 20th century’s greatest creative talents. Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce and Man Ray all hung out in this once cheap and gritty quarter. Speakeasies such as Rosebud were regular haunts.
Today, it’s a little sleepier than during its heyday, but still has plenty to offer culturally curious visitors, from art and architecture to theatre, markets, pedestrian streets that reveal their village roots, parks and restaurants. Take a walk in peaceful Montparnasse Cemetery, where Sartre, Irish writer Samuel Beckett and other world-famous names are buried.
Quartier of Montparnasse
The Montparnasse district is the 53rd administrative district of Paris located in the 14th arrondissement, on the left bank of the Seine, south of the intersection of boulevard du Montparnasse and boulevard Raspail. The Montparnasse district includes the slopes of the eponymous hill, famous for the artistic effervescence that took place there during the Roaring Twenties. The administrative district is only a portion of “Montparnasse”.
The variety of its cultural offer, the richness of its historical heritage and large green spaces are major assets for this dynamic and family district. A district with a rich cultural heritage, except for a few scenic spots, the biggest feature of this area is the streets full of cultural and artistic history and full of life. The buildings in the district are known as the Parisian style, a unique combination of pastoral and bourgeois character.
Montparnasse neighborhood is characterized by village districts which have kept their authenticity over time, the area has retained its cultural flair with many artist workshops and brasseries lining up around Vavin, leaving traces of its famous residents, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Chagall, and Modigliani… Following the Boulevard Raspail south, you’ll pass by La Fondation Cartier, before ending up at Denfert-Rochereau. The square here is known for its gigantic lion statue.
In the 1960s, the proclaimed desire to make Montparnasse the business district of the Left Bank would change the face of this place steeped in history. The station, which was too narrow, moved back 400 meters, and on the right-of-way gained grew the Montparnasse tower and the Montparnasse Rive Gauche shopping center. The arrival of the TGV Atlantique led to the reconfiguration of the station and the creation of the Atlantic garden on the slab which covers the tracks between the facade of Place Raoul-Dautry and Place des Cinq-Martyrs-du-Lycée-Buffon.
With the increasing specialization of the districts of Paris, Montparnasse has become both an office and transit district during the day, and a leisure district in the evening, presenting a choice of cafés, cinemas and restaurants which has few equals. The Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where amateur artists can still paint models, or the Adam Montparnasse painting equipment shop, are among the testimonies of the artistic center that was the district. Art lovers can also discover every Sunday on the La Création market the works exhibited and sold live by the artists; the market was moved from Place Jacques-Demy to Boulevard Edgar-Quinet. Plaques have also been affixed to certain buildings to recall the illustrious name of one of its inhabitants.
To safeguard the spirit of the district, the Montparnasse museum opened in 1998 at 21, avenue du Maine and closed in 2013. Operating with a subsidy from the City, the museum, which presented only temporary exhibitions, was managed by a association which brought together lovers of the neighborhood and its history. It has since been replaced by the Villa Vassilief Art Center, a meeting place for artists and artistic life. The Les Montparnos gallery, opened in 2009 at 5, rue Stanislas, specializes in the School of Paris of the 1920s and the rediscovery of forgotten artists of Montparnasse painting from the interwar period.
Quartier of Notre-Dame-des-Champs
The Notre-Dame-des-Champs district is the 23rd administrative district of Paris located in the 6th arrondissement. It takes its name from the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, whose very old layout goes from the rue de Rennes, near the Saint-Placide station, to Port-Royal where it joins the southern end of the boulevard Saint- Michael.
With its cityscape, intellectual tradition, history, architecture, and central location, the arrondissement has long been home to French intelligentsia. The Montparnasse district represents the heart of Parisian elegance and refinement, combining grandiose architecture, imposing and old houses, verdant terraces and the picturesque Luxembourg garden. This is where the famous fashion boutiques, secret inner courtyards and literary cafes are.
The Montparnasse district, one of the most romantic and appealing areas of Paris, for many years now the 6ème has been home to artists, writers, designers, intellectuals and the chicest of the chic. This central arrondissement has played a major role throughout Paris history and is well known for its café culture and the revolutionary intellectualism (existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir) and literature (Paul Éluard, Boris Vian, Albert Camus, Françoise Sagan) it has hosted. It is a major locale for art galleries and fashion stores.
Quartier of Necker
The Necker district is the 58th administrative district of Paris located in the 15th arrondissement. The quarter of Necker, situated between Grenelle and the quarter of Montparnasse of the 14th arrondissement, is home to some of the locations named after Montparnasse, most notably the Tour Montparnasse and Gare Montparnasse. It also houses more large public service and commercial buildings, such as the expansive Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades. Otherwise, it is full of late 20th-century residential buildings, with many fewer Haussmannian structures than Grenelle.
The station and the Montparnasse tower are certainly the most famous places in the district. Around the station, the district has been renovated, and currently features high residential and office buildings, a park (the Atlantic garden) built on a huge slab above the railway tracks, shopping centers. Finally, the Necker district is home to many public buildings, including the Buffon high school, the Necker-Enfants Malades hospital and the Pasteur Institute.
The many cultural spaces, museums and theaters scattered throughout the area testify to the cultural richness of this arrondissement. Avenue du Maine in the heart of the Montparnasse district also houses another artists’ residence, the villa Vassilieff, where the Espace Krajcberg is located., an exhibition space open to the general public.
Main Attractions
The Montparnasse district has always been a district very popular with artists and craftsmen. The painters Pablo Picasso and Yves Klein, the muse and model Kiki de Montparnasse, the photographers Man-Ray and Eugène Atget and many others made it their home. Many people wanted to live there and set up their studios there, particularly in the Rue Campagne Première, Rue Delambre and Rue Cassini, as well as in the artist cities of Villa d’Alésia and Villa Seurat. This merry band made the beautiful hours (day and night) of the famous brasseries La Coupole or Le Dôme. The alley of the worker’s castleis still bordered today by artists’ studios. It is in Alésia that the painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti set up his modest studio.
The Montparnasse district also gives pride of place to live shows thanks to its many theaters and performance halls located in particular in the very lively district of the Montparnasse tower. Rue de la Gaîté alone houses the Théâtre de la Gaîté Montparnasse, where Maurice Chevalier and Juliette Gréco began their careers, the Théâtre Rive Gauche, the Théâtres Montparnasse and Petit Montparnasse, the Comédie Italienne and Bobino. Further on the edge of the 14th, the 14 th theatre, which had a facelift in 2020, is run by a young team that breathes new life into theatrical creation.
In the southern district around Montparnasse and Plaisance, the fresh products of the Bio Brancusi market or the Brune market as well as the pastries of the Paradis Gourmand delight the most gourmet. Good restaurants make the beautiful hours of the 14th arrondissement. Don’t miss the innovative cuisine of MoSuke by Mory Sacko, the specialties of the A Mi-Chemin restaurant, not to mention the menus provided by the many creperies on rue d’Odessa, a little piece of Brittany in Paris.
On the shopping side, the very lively Daguerre and Raymond Losserand streets, which criss-cross the 14th, line up with many food shops, florists, restaurants and bistro terraces. Art enthusiasts can stroll through the Parisian Creation Market which is held on Sundays, boulevard Edgar Quinet. Painting, engraving, sculpture, photography, collage, ceramics, painted silk… many artistic disciplines are represented there. Finally, for ethical purchases, head to Porte de Vanves in rue Prevost Paradol, which brings together several ecological and solidarity shops.
Maine-Montparnasse Tower
Tour Maine-Montparnasse, is a office skyscraper located in the Montparnasse area of Paris, France. Constructed from 1969 to 1973, it was the tallest skyscraper in France until 2011, when it was surpassed by the 231-metre Tour First. The tower is 210 meters high, and its base has the shape of an almond of 50 × 32 meters, with a triangular indentation at both ends. It weighs 130,000 tons, has 6 underground levels and 59 floors of an average of 1,700 m2 each, all topped by a roof terrace. With 30,000 m2 of shops and 100,000 m 2 of offices, the Montparnasse tower is the leading European building complex. This is an office building with an observation and shopping area on the 56th floor, where the elevators stop, and an open viewing area on the roof.
The 56th floor, equipped with a panoramic bar-restaurant, as well as the terrace on the 59th floor, which can only be reached by stairs, are accessible to tourists, allowing them to enjoy an interesting 360 view of Paris.°. The 56th floor, covered, with many facilities to better understand the city and its history: terminals and interactive panoramas, exhibition of historical photos of Paris. This level also offers a bar and gift shop. The terrace, on the 59th floor, with an open-air area of 800 m2, was designed to take advantage of the view of Paris via large glazed walls of an additional 2.90 m in height. A champagne bar is open there during the summer. Part of the Observatory, Espace, can be reserved for private or professional events: seminars, weddings, receptions, conferences… It also acts as a nightclub. Another part of this floor has been granted to the Elior Group for its gastronomic restaurant Le Ciel de Paris.
Gare Montparnasse
Gare Montparnasse is one of the six large Paris railway termini, located in the 14th and 15th arrondissements. The station opened in 1840, was rebuilt in 1852 and relocated in 1969 to a new station just south of the original location, where subsequently the prominent Montparnasse Tower was constructed. It is a central element to the Montparnasse area. The original station is noted for the Montparnasse derailment, where a steam train crashed through the station in 1895, an event captured in widely known photographs – and reproduced in full scale in several locations.
The station itself is worth visiting; in the main hall, large Op art wall compositions by the painter Victor Vasarely are installed, while the Atlantic garden is located on a slab above the tracks. Until 2019, it housed a museum complex on the Resistance, consisting of the Museum of General Leclerc de Hauteclocque and the Liberation of Paris – Jean-Moulin Museum, a double museum dedicated to these two personalities; this museum was moved in 2019 to be reinstalled in a building on place Denfert-Rochereau.
Grand Pavois de Paris
The Grand Pavois de Paris is a vast real estate complex in Paris, France. Built from 1969 to 1971 in two stages by architects Jean Fayeton (Jean-Louis Fayeton) and Michel Herbert for Cogedim, it consists of two buildings that intersect. The building also houses many shops (a supermarket, a sewing shop, a pharmacy, etc.), some of which are distributed by a shopping arcade on the ground floor, and many liberal professions. It also housed a homonymous movie theatre until 2007.
Most of the building is occupied by housing units, which number over 600. The south-eastern facade of the 16 stories building is entirely made up of balconies, also equipping the north and south gables. By its population and the variety of services offered, the Grand Pavois can be considered as a city on its own. In 2021, the Grand Pavois is one of the three complexes having been the subject of a consultation within the framework of the “Buildings to share” project under the aegis of the Pavillon de l’Arsenal which is a prospective study of the transformation of the condominium regime in Paris.
Church of Saint-Sulpice
The Church of Saint-Sulpice is a Roman Catholic church in Paris, France, on the east side of Place Saint-Sulpice, in the Latin Quarter of the 6th arrondissement. It is only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and thus the second-largest church in the city. It is dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious. Construction of the present building, the second church on the site, began in 1646. During the 18th century, an elaborate gnomon, the Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice, was constructed in the church. The church is the subject of a classification as historical monuments since theMay 20, 1915. Due to the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris on April 15, 2019, the church acts as a diocesan cathedral for major ceremonies.
The church of Saint-Sulpice, oriented in the usual west-east direction, is an imposing building 120 meters long, 57 meters wide, 30 meters high under the central vault; it is the second largest church in Paris after Notre-Dame. The plan and the initial architectural principles of Saint-Sulpice are in fact inspired by certain buildings established by the Jesuits, the design of which was intended to be adapted to the Catholic liturgy reformed by the Council of Trent: “a Latin cross church, with a single nave, confined to communicating chapels and a slightly projecting transept, barrel-vaulted, high windows, cupola at the crossroads, facade with two superimposed orders of unequal width crowned with a pediment”.
Bourdelle Museum
The Bourdelle Museum is located at 18 rue Antoine -Bourdelle in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. It is installed in the apartments, workshops and gardens where Antoine Bourdelle lived and worked from 1885 at the address of the time. The place was transformed into a museum in 1949. It is one of the 14 museums of the City of Paris managed since January 1, 2013 by the public administrative establishment Paris Musées.
Museum of General Leclerc de Hauteclocque and the Liberation of Paris – Jean-Moulin museum
The Museum of General Leclerc de Hauteclocque and the Liberation of Paris – Musée Jean-Moulin was one of the fourteen museums of the city of Paris managed since theJanuary 1, 2013by the public administrative establishment Paris Musées. This double museum is dedicated to Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and Jean Moulin, two personalities of Free France during the Second World War. Through their fate, the museum presents the course of the war, the fate of occupied France and the action of the Resistance.
Pasteur Museum
The Pasteur Museum was opened to the public in 1935 in the Institut Pasteur at 25, rue du Docteur-Roux, in the Necker district of the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The apartments of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Pasteur are remarkably preserved and also offer perfect historical testimony to the Parisian bourgeois habitat at the end of the 19th century. The building was classified as a historic monument in 1981. The museum finds its origin in a family donation in the 1930s.
The Pasteur Museum, dedicated to the life of Louis Pasteur, is housed in the apartment occupied by him for the last seven years of his life. The visit ends with the Byzantine-inspired chapel. According to a plan by the architect Charles Girault, the crypt where Louis Pasteur and his wife rest, was decorated with mosaics, made by the Parisian mosaic workshop Guilbert-Martin. These were made on the basis of the drawings and cartoons of the painter Luc-Olivier Merson, evoking the various works and fields of activity of the scientist.
Paris Postal Museum
The Musée de La Poste is the La Poste Group’s corporate museum dedicated to French postal history and philately. The Musée de La Poste is a place for the presentation, conservation and dissemination of postal heritage. It is centered on Writing, History and Culture. From seven-league boots to the heroes of the Aéropostale, via the panorama of 150 years of postage stamps in France, the collections of the Musée de La Poste tell a story, not only that of a company but also that of the France on a daily basis. The museum preserves and exhibits over more than 1000 m², the historical, artistic, philatelic and scientific heritage made up of pieces from collections as diverse as the first maps of post routes, postmen’s uniforms, artists’ models, stamps -poste, popular objects and finally a large collection of mail art and mail art.
The Musée de La Poste is the beneficiary and the manager for the State of the compulsory deposit of the archives of the manufacture of French postage stamps, of Andorra and of the Overseas collectivities, including the issues of the stamps of the TAAF, the Lands French Australs and Antarctics. It preserves 1,267,000 works, including more than a million philatelic items (preparatory drawings, models, punches and postage stamps), more than 200,000 images, 37,000 works and objects illustrating the history and trades of La Poste from the Middle Ages to the present day, 30,000 printed works, 800 magazine titles and a fund of mail art and contemporary art.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation
The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, is an art gallery and non-profit organisation in Paris that was established to preserve and show the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck, and show the work of others. It was set up in 2003 by the photographer and painter Cartier-Bresson, his wife, also a photographer, Franck, and their daughter, Mélanie Cartier-Bresson. The Foundation hosts four solo exhibitions per year by a variety of photographers, painters, sculptors, and illustrators.
Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, known simply as the Fondation Cartier, is a contemporary art museum located at 261 boulevard Raspail in the 14th arrondissement of the French capital, Paris. A museum of contemporary art. It was founded in 1984 by the well-known jewel and watch manufacturer, Cartier. In 1994 it moved to the new building erected on plans of the architect Jean Nouvel. The museum displays exhibits of contemporary and international artists, and currently contains over 1500 works by more than 350 artists.
Its collections include monumental works such as The Monument to Language by James Lee Byars, Caterpillar by Wim Delvoye, Backyard by Liza Lou, La Volière (The Aviary) by Jean-Pierre Raynaud, and Everything that Rises Must Converge by Sarah Sze; works by contemporary French artists including Vincent Beaurin, Gérard Garouste, Raymond Hains, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Alain Séchas, Pierrick Sorin, Jean Giraud; and works by foreign artists including James Coleman (Ireland), Thomas Demand (Germany), Alair Gomes (Brazil), William Kentridge (South Africa), Bodys Isek Kingelez (the Congo), Guillermo Kuitca (Argentina), Yukio Nakagawa (Japan), Huang Yong Ping (China), and Damian Pettigrew (Canada).
Gaite-Montparnasse Theater
The Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse is a venue situated at 26, rue de la Gaîté, in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the 14th arrondissement. It opened in 1868 and seats 399 people.The establishment was built by lemonade maker François Jamin, with materials salvaged from the demolition of the theater for the Universal Exhibition of 1867. Open inseptember 1868, it is first of all a café-concert, named Concert de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. The entrance is then Chaussée du Maine. The greatest artists of the time performed there, such as Polin, Yvette Guilbert, Fragson, Dorville, Dranem and Mayol.
In addition to functioning as a popular café-concert venue for many decades, it evolved into a legitimate theatre, offering not only commercial plays but also, by the end of the nineteenth century, occasional new experimentalist plays of the Independent Theatre movement. But in the 1930s, the fashion for the café-concert passed. From 1945 to 1949, the establishment was rented by Agnès Capri, who transformed it into an avant-garde theater and renamed it Théâtre Agnès Capri. It was then bought and completely renovated by Michel Fagadau, who ran it until 1995.
Equipped with a 401-seat auditorium, Gaîté-Montparnasse has been listed as a historic monument since 1984. In 2010, 50 Parisian private theaters united within the Association for the Support of Private Theater and the National Syndicate of Directors and Turners of Private Theater, of which the Gaîté- Montparnasse, decided to join forces under a common banner: the Parisian Associated Theaters.
Théâtre Montparnasse
The Théâtre Montparnasse is a theatre at 31, rue de la Gaîté in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. After the death of famed Paris theatre builder and artistic director Henri Larochelle (1826-1884), his widow, along with former actor and artistic director Louis-Hubert Hartmann, built the present structure, which opened on 29 October 1886, on a site that had been dedicated to theatre since 1817. Architect Charles Peigniet, who helped create the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty in New York Bay, designed the new building. Although the Théâtre Montparnasse began as a commercial playhouse for melodramatic fare, it occasionally leased its stage to new experimentalist plays of the Independent Theatre movement.
From 1930 to 1943, Gaston Baty directed the theatre, and as a result, it became known as the Théâtre Montparnasse-Gaston Baty. From 1944 to 1964, actress Margaret Jamois directed the theatre. In 1965, Lars Schmidt bought the theatre and appointed Jerome Hullot artistic director. Schmidt and Hullot introduced many English talents to the French stage, including such authors and actors as Harold Pinter, Peter Shaffer, Noël Coward, Arnold Wesker, and Murray Schisgal. In 1979, they created the Petit Montparnasse theatre on the site of a former warehouse.
In 1984, Schmidt retired, and Myriam Colombi succeeded him, renovating the theatre and adding a bar-restaurant. The current capacity of the main theatre is seven hundred and fifteen seats. In 1998, renovation and expansion of the Petit Montparnasse began, and it became a hall with two hundred seats, finally reopening in November 2003. The Théâtre Montparnasse-Gaston Baty was designated a historic monument on 3 April 1984.
International university city of Paris
Cité internationale universitaire de Paris (CiuP, Cité U) is a private park and foundation located in Paris, France. Since 1925, it has provided general and public services, including the maintenance of several dozen residences housing around 6,000 students and visiting academics in the Île-de-France region. It has been officially recognized as a foundation of public interest since then. The Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris promotes, in a spirit of tolerance, exchanges between students from around the world.
The Cité Universitaire, campus of the universities of Paris has 35 hectares of green spaces open to the general public. A huge green setting where you can admire some forty pavilions with different architecture inspired by styles from around the world. Two buildings in particular were designed by Le Corbusier: the Maison du Brésil and the Swiss Foundation. Guided tours are organized there regularly. An atypical place to treat yourself to a world tour without leaving Paris.
La Ruche city of artists
La Ruche is a city of artists with around sixty workshops, located in the Saint-Lambert district of the 15th arrondissement of Paris. La Ruche is located at number 2 of the Passage de Dantzig, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Until 1910, the residence was linked to Montparnasse by a tram pulled by two horses. Behind the large iron gate half-hidden under the ivy stands this green space in the heart of Paris and one of the most important artistic centers of the 20th century. The octagonal wine pavilion occupies the center of the property, which covers nearly 5,000 m2. Rising on three floors, it is composed of many small workshops of about thirty square meters. The facades and roofs of the building are listed as historical monuments by an order of the19 janvier 1972.
The city of artists La Ruche, founded at the beginning of the 20th century to help young artists in the making, it counted among its occupants renowned painters and sculptors such as Amedeo Modigliani, Chaïm Soutine, Constantin Brâncuşi, Fernand Léger, Marie Laurencin, Ossip Zadkine or even Marc Chagall. La Ruche, which is still in operation, still hosts around sixty workshops today.
Montparnasse Cemetery
Montparnasse Cemetery is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city’s 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery contains 35,000 plots and is the resting place to a variety of individuals including political figures, philosophers, artists, actors, and writers. Additionally, in the cemetery one can find a number of tombs commemorating those who died in the Franco-Prussian war during the siege of Paris (1870–1871) and the Paris Commune (1871).
The burial place of existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, feminist Simone de Beauvoir (both of whom lived nearby); musician Serge Gainsbourg; artist Man Ray; the poets Charles Baudelaire, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Sainte-Beuve, and Marguerite Duras; the founders of the Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Becket and Eugene Ionesco; the sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Ossip Zadkine; the composers Camille de Saint-Saens and César Franck; the actors Maria Montez and Jean Seberg; the French officer Alfred Dreyfus; the founder of the Larousse encyclopedia, Pierre Larousse; the industrialist André Citroen, and many others.
Luxembourg Garden
The Jardin du Luxembourg is a garden open to the public, located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Created in 1612 at the request of Marie de Medici to accompany the Luxembourg Palace, it was restored under the direction of the architect Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin under the First Empire and now belongs to the domain of the Senate. It extends over 23 hectares decorated with flowerbeds and sculptures, and is known for its lawns, tree-lined promenades, tennis courts, flowerbeds, model sailboats on its octagonal Grand Bassin, as well as picturesque Medici Fountain, built in 1620.
The Luxembourg Gardens are a magnificent green setting particularly appreciated by walkers. The park gives pride of place to nature with its orchard, its orchid greenhouses, its rose garden, its orangery and its apiaries. It is adorned with 106 statues and houses the lovely Medici Fountain. Many sporting or recreational activities are practiced there. In 2022, according to a list of the English-speaking site HouseFresh which has aggregated the opinions of tens of thousands of tourists, it is designated as the most beautiful garden in Europe and the third most beautiful garden in the world, behind the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. and the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech.