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Square · Saint-Germain-des-Prés · 6e arrondissement

Place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir

The buildingStill standing
Getting inWalk straight in
What's there nowStill the same

A small public square, free and always open.

A small square in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, renamed in 2000 for Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir together — a few steps from the Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots, where they worked.

Address
Place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir, 75006 Paris
Years
Named in 2000
IllustrationBright present-day view of cyclists and pedestrians at Place Sartre-Beauvoir

A reference-faithful color view of the square; every person and transient vehicle is newly generated.

Editorial illustration

The place, briefly

The square beside the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was renamed in 2000 as the place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir.

Naming a Paris square for two people is unusual, and naming it for an unmarried couple who never lived together is more so. But it is the accurate memorial. Sartre and Beauvoir met over the 1929 agrégation, worked in the same cafés for fifty years, founded Les Temps modernes together, and are buried in one grave in Montparnasse cemetery. Neither has a Paris square of their own.

The location is exact rather than symbolic. The Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots are both on this junction, and those were their offices — Beauvoir spent her working days upstairs at the Flore, and the two of them wrote there through the Occupation partly because the cafés were heated and their rooms were not.

It is a small square and it takes two minutes. What it gives you is the geographic centre of postwar French intellectual life, which turns out to be a café junction in the sixth arrondissement.

Key facts

Renamed
2000, for both of them together
Where
Beside the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in the 6th
What is on it
The Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots
Why the cafés mattered
They were heated; through the Occupation, their rooms were not
Where the two of them are now
One grave, in Montparnasse cemetery
Admission
Free, always open

In images

The small public junction between boulevard Saint-Germain, rue Saint-Benoît and rue de Rennes today.Editorial illustration
A reference-faithful color view of the square; every person and transient vehicle is newly generated.Editorial illustration
Interpretive reconstruction of the junction in the postwar café era, before it was named for Sartre and Beauvoir.Artistic reconstruction
Documented street geometry and period café atmosphere in natural color; the people and exact daily activity are interpretive.Artistic reconstruction
The square's present-day crosswalks and long view into rue de Rennes.Editorial illustration
The joint street plaque installed after the square received both names in 2000.Editorial illustration
The café-lined edge of the junction today, populated with newly generated guests and passersby.Editorial illustration

Timeline

  1. 1929

    Sartre and Beauvoir meet over the agrégation in philosophy — he places first, she places second.

  2. 1940s

    The pair work daily in the cafés on this junction, partly because they are heated.

  3. 1945

    They found the review Les Temps modernes.

  4. 2000

    The square is renamed the place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir.

On the map

Questions before you go

Where is the Place Sartre-Beauvoir?

In Saint-Germain-des-Prés, beside the church, in the 6th arrondissement. It was renamed in 2000 for Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir together, and both the Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots stand on it.

Why are they named together?

Because the partnership is the thing being commemorated. They met over the 1929 agrégation, worked in the same cafés for fifty years, founded Les Temps modernes together, and share a grave in Montparnasse cemetery. Neither has a Paris square of their own.

Why did they write in cafés?

Partly for the company and partly for the heat. Through the Occupation the cafés were warm and their own rooms were not, and Beauvoir in particular worked whole days at a table on the first floor of the Café de Flore.

Writers who knew this place

Illustrated portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

French · French philosopher, novelist and playwright, co-founder of Les Temps modernes, life partner of Simone de Beauvoir, and the central figure of French existentialism whose 1952 dispute with Albert Camus over The Rebel ended their friendship.

Frequented by

The square beside Saint-Germain-des-Prés, renamed for Sartre and Beauvoir together in 2000 — the junction of the two cafés the pair used as offices for decades.

— Dans les pas de Simone de Beauvoir, rive gauche

Illustrated portrait of Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir

French · French writer and philosopher whose novels, memoirs, and social analysis examined freedom, gender, responsibility, aging, and the material conditions that shape a life.

Frequented by

The square beside Saint-Germain-des-Prés, renamed for Beauvoir and Sartre together in 2000. The Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots stand on it, and Beauvoir worked whole days at a table on the Flore's first floor.

— Dans les pas de Simone de Beauvoir, rive gauche

Within walking distance

Les Deux Magots today, green and white awnings and rattan café chairs facing the church

Café · Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Les Deux Magots

The famous literary terrace where the expat crowd gathered. Ernest Hemingway came here, though he preferred La Closerie for actual work.

Visit the place
The Café de Flore today, white awning and red seats behind the terrace planters

Café · Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Café de Flore

A few doors from Les Deux Magots and part of the same Left Bank circuit. Later became more associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Visit the place
The Montana today, dark grey façade with a red cursive neon sign and red curtains behind black window frames

Nightclub · Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Le Montana

A Saint-Germain bar of the postwar years, steps from the Café de Flore, that the City of Paris counts among the gay clubs James Baldwin frequented.

Visit the place
Brasserie Lipp today, red awning lit at dusk with the neon LIPP sign above the door

Restaurant · Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Brasserie Lipp

Beer, potato salad, and choucroute after a day's work. Ernest Hemingway considered it one of the best places in Paris.

Visit the place
References

References

The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.

  1. 1Dans les pas de Simone de Beauvoir, rive gauche

    Website
    Ville de Paris
    Used for

    The city's Beauvoir walk records the square's renaming to "Sartre-Beauvoir" in 2000, and her working days upstairs at the Café de Flore.

    View source

  2. 2OpenStreetMap

    Map data
    Used for

    Map data used to verify addresses, geographic coordinates, and the placement associated with Place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir.

    View source

  1. 3Simone de Beauvoir

    Essays
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Used for

    Published analysis and historical context used in preparing the Place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir page.

    View source

  2. 4Sartre and Genet

    Exhibition catalogue
    Bibliothèque nationale de France
    Used for

    Catalogue scholarship used to verify attribution, provenance, chronology, and interpretive context for Place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir.

    View source
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Why these sources are here

These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.

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