Le Select, a café-brasserie on boulevard du Montparnasse since 1923

Le Select, a café-brasserie on boulevard du Montparnasse, opened in 1923 on the corner of rue Vavin. With Le Dôme, La Rotonde, La Closerie des Lilas and La Coupole, it was one of the artists’ and intellectuals’ cafés that brought the crossroads, now place Pablo-Picasso, to life.

The first café in Montparnasse to stay open all night, Le Select drew painters, writers and dancers. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Henry Miller wrote here; Picasso, Cocteau and Max Jacob argued on the terrace, and Man Ray, Derain and Foujita called in. Isadora Duncan once hurled a saucer during a quarrel, and the owner, Mademoiselle Jalbert, had the poet Hart Crane arrested.

During the Occupation, Serge Lifar, Jean Marais and Suzy Solidor were regulars. After the war, painters of the School of Paris such as Isaac Frenkel and Mane-Katz came back. The café keeps its mirrors and Art Deco decor from those years.

On the odd-numbered side of the boulevard, in the Notre-Dame-des-Champs quarter of the 6th arrondissement, it remains a café where a table may be held for hours, on the terrace or in the mirrored room.