Montparnasse - Bienvenüe

Montparnasse-Bienvenüe is the gateway to the TGV network serving western and south-western France, and with four Métro lines it is one of Paris's busiest interchanges. The mainline station above handles trains to Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Brest and international services toward Madrid. For travellers heading to the Atlantic coast or the vineyards of Bordeaux, this is the departure point.

The neighbourhood carries the weight of a golden era. In the 1920s and 1930s, the cafés of Boulevard du Montparnasse - La Coupole, Le Dôme, La Rotonde, Le Select - were the social headquarters of the artistic avant-garde. Hemingway, Picasso, Matisse, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre all worked and argued here. The cafés are still open, still serving the same dishes, still recognisable from the period photographs.

Station Overview

Zone 1. Lines 4, 6, 12 and 13. Step-free access available. Major TGV terminus above for western France.

Travel Tips

• Tour Montparnasse (59th floor observation deck) offers the best 360° views of Paris - on clear days you can see the curvature of the earth on the horizon
• TGV to Bordeaux: approximately 2 hours 5 minutes. To Rennes: approximately 1 hour 30 minutes
• Cimetière du Montparnasse (Sartre, Beauvoir, Beckett, Serge Gainsbourg buried here) is a 5-minute walk south - free, open daily
• La Coupole brasserie (1927) on Boulevard du Montparnasse is the best surviving example of the interwar café-brasserie style

Nearby Attractions

Tour Montparnasse - 5 minutes walk. The 210-metre tower offers the best unobstructed 360° view of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower without any foreground obstruction. Observation deck admission charged.

Cimetière du Montparnasse - 5 minutes walk south. Free. Sartre, de Beauvoir, Beckett, Gainsbourg, Man Ray and Baudelaire are buried here. Pick up a map at the entrance.

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain - 10 minutes walk south. One of Paris's best contemporary art galleries in a Jean Nouvel glass building. Admission charged.

Timings and Best Time to Travel

Standard Métro hours. TGV services run from early morning to late evening. The Tour Montparnasse observation deck is open until 23:00 - exceptional at night when the illuminated city spreads out below.