Simone de Beauvoir
Lived here · 1908
Beauvoir was born here in 1908 and spent her childhood in the flat with her sister Hélène. Nearly all of her Paris lies within a short walk of the door.
103 boulevard du Montparnasse
Still standing
Outside only
Someone else
Where Simone de Beauvoir was born in 1908 and grew up with her sister Hélène — in the middle of Montparnasse, the quarter she would spend most of her life within a few streets of.
- 103 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris
- Simone de Beauvoir was born here in 1908 and spent her childhood in the flat
The place, briefly
Simone de Beauvoir was born at 103 boulevard du Montparnasse in 1908, and she and her sister Hélène spent their childhood in the flat.
The address does something unusual for a writer's birthplace: it explains the rest of the map. Beauvoir's Paris is one of the most concentrated of any major writer. She was born here, went to school on the rue Jacob, took her independence at 91 avenue Denfert-Rochereau, wrote daily in the Café de Flore, bought her own first flat on the rue Victor-Schœlcher, and is buried in Montparnasse cemetery. Every one of those is a short walk from this door.
That concentration is worth noticing rather than passing over. The woman who wrote The Second Sex, travelled constantly and became one of the most internationally visible intellectuals of the century did nearly all of it inside about a square kilometre of the Left Bank.
The building is private and unmarked. It is the beginning of the shortest useful literary walk in Paris.
Key facts
- Simone de Beauvoir, born here in 1908
- Her sister Hélène; the two spent their childhood in the flat
- Nearly all of Beauvoir's Paris is within a short walk of this door
- Private building, exterior only
Timeline
Simone de Beauvoir is born at 103 boulevard du Montparnasse.
She and her sister Hélène grow up in the flat.
She moves to her grandmother's building on the avenue Denfert-Rochereau to gain her independence.
On the map
Questions before you go
Where was Simone de Beauvoir born?
At 103 boulevard du Montparnasse in the 6th arrondissement, in 1908. She and her sister Hélène grew up in the flat, and she remained within a short walk of it for most of her life.
Why does the address matter?
Because Beauvoir's Paris is unusually concentrated. Her school, the flat where she took her independence, the café where she wrote daily, the first apartment she bought with her own money and her grave are all within about a square kilometre of this building.
Writers who knew this place
Within walking distance
La Rotonde
The café every taxi driver delivered Americans to — the novel's driest Montparnasse joke, and before that the painters' living room, where the patron took drawings for drinks.
Visit the place
Le Dôme
The noisy common room of Montparnasse and the setting of 'With Pascin at the Dôme' — the café for watching the show, not for working.
Visit the place
Le Select
The all-night café of the Vavin crossroads and the closest thing Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises has to a home address — the crowd always ends up at the Select.
Visit the place
Black Manikin Press (4 Rue Delambre)
Edward Titus's Montparnasse bookshop and small press, where D. H. Lawrence settled terms on 5 April 1929 for the cheap Paris edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover that finally undercut the pirates.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.