La Closerie des Lilas is known worldwide for having been the stronghold of many artists, an address not to be missed in Paris.
Popular thanks to Ernest Heningway
We know the Closerie des Lilas mainly thanks to Ernest Heningway. Know that the American author was hardly the only one to frequent this Montparnasse bar and to appreciate its unique atmosphere. He rubbed shoulders with his no less talented friends from across the Atlantic, Henry Miller and Fitzgerald – who also made him read his manuscript of Gatsby the Magnificent, outside, on the terrace. But, at the tables of this century-and-a-half-old restaurant, a large number of illustrious poets, philosophers and artists have succeeded one another, among whom we will not fail to mention : Paul Fort, Emile Zola, Paul Cézanne, Paul Verlaine, Apollinaire, Alfred Jarry, André Breton, Aragon, Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre, André Gide, Paul Eluard, Oscar Wilde, Modigliani, Beckett, and so many others…
Lenin played chess at the Closerie
However, nothing predestined this café, which was originally just a vulgar guinguette serving as a post office, to such success. However, it was between these four walls that Paul Fort, the first, played chess with Lenin. Soon, the Tuesdays of the Closerie became the unmissable meeting place for intellectuals who met to exchange their poems and compare their opinions. A jewel of Parisian artistic and cultural life, it is hardly surprising that a dispute between Tristan Tzara and André Breton literally put an end to Dadaism here, giving birth at the same time to the surrealist movement.
A typical parisian brasserie
In the inter-war period, the café was modernized and acquired a superb Art Deco style with woodwork on the walls, mahogany bar, engraved glasses with graphic patterns… Today, the interior is chic and cozy with its mosaic floor and its red moleskin benches. The shaded terrace is particularly pleasant in summer. In the plates, the essentials of the Parisian brasserie, and in the restaurant a gastronomic cuisine leaving a good place for fish and seafood. You can simply come and taste, at the bar, one of the many house cocktails. Every year, women are honored with the awarding of numerous prizes (Prix de la Closerie, Lilas Prize, Lilas of the Book, etc.) rewarding the great ladies of writing and the world of publishing.
171 Bd du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris
