Opened in 1824 on former farmland, the Cimetière du Montparnasse is the great Left Bank counterpart to Père Lachaise: a quiet grid of tree-lined avenues holding an extraordinary roll-call of writers, artists, and thinkers. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir share a simple slab near the entrance, often left scattered with metro tickets and kisses in lipstick; Baudelaire, Beckett, Man Ray, Brâncuși, and Serge Gainsbourg — whose grave is the most visited — lie within the walls.
It is smaller, flatter, and far less crowded than Père Lachaise, which makes it the more contemplative visit. Free maps at the gate mark the notable graves. An hour of unhurried wandering is enough, and it pairs naturally with the brasseries of the boulevard a few minutes north.