Montparnasse Cemetery

Montparnasse Cemetery rests on ground that served a very different purpose in the seventeenth century. Before it became a final resting place for the city's intellectual and artistic elite, the site was home to a working stone windmill. This structure, known as the Moulin de la Charité, eventually transitioned from grinding grain into a popular tavern and open-air dance hall for local students and revelers. You can still see the stone base of this historic windmill standing silently in the center of the cemetery today, a remnant of its former life as a neighborhood destination for the living.