A brief history of Paris's great restaurants: Le Select, in the rhythm of the Roaring Twenties

Opened in 1923 on Boulevard Montparnasse, Le Select has embodied the artistic and literary spirit of Paris for a century, with its mythical figures, unchanged decor and ever-present effervescence.

Located in the heart of the Vavin district, Le Select is one of the Left Bank's most emblematic brasseries. Opened in 1923, this century-old Parisian café has never ceased to attract artists, writers, film-makers and travellers from all over the world. From Hemingway to Dali, Simone de Beauvoir to Godard, it has been the scene of a thousand encounters and the witness to a century of lively intelligence and exalted bohemia.

A birth in the Paris of the Roaring Twenties

When Le Select opened its doors in 1923, Paris was vibrating to the rhythm of the Roaring Twenties. Montparnasse became the nerve center of international artistic life. From the outset, Le Select established itself as a café for creators and ideas, a warm, cosmopolitan hangout that attracted the figures of modernity. More than a bistro, it is a laboratory where painters, writers, musicians, photographers, film-makers and philosophers meet.

A haven for legendary artists

In the 20s and 30s, Le Select was home to a gallery of unheard-of personalities: Hemingway, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Beckett, Cocteau, Picasso, Satie, Foujita, Dali, Buñuel, Miró, Artaud... They all met, chatted, drank and invented. The effervescence is palpable at every table. Everyone comes to draw energy from the place, between ceramics, mirrors and the scent of black coffee. After the war, the legend continues. Le Select welcomed the figures of the Beat Generation: William Burroughs, Brian Gysin and Allen Ginsberg. The latter even wrote part of his poem Kaddish here. The shadows of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir still loom large, while cinema immortalizes the place: Jean-Luc Godard shot a scene from his film Breathless in 1960.

La petite histoire des grands restaurants de Paris : Le Select, au rythme des Années Folles — Le Select

Unchanged decor and faithful spirit

The décor remains virtually unchanged: the banquettes, the marble tables, the waiters in white aprons, the large windows looking out onto the boulevard have all been part of the same landscape for a century. Even today, the simple, traditional menu serves breakfasts, brasserie dishes, coffees and glasses of wine until the middle of the night.