Café de la Rotonde

> The taxi stopped in front of the Rotonde. No matter what café in Montparnasse you ask a taxi-driver to bring you to … they always take you to the Rotonde. Founded in 1911 at the corner of Boulevard du Montparnasse and Boulevard Raspail, [La Rotonde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_de_la_Rotonde) was already renowned as a meeting place for artists and writers. In [*The Sun Also Rises*](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67138/67138-h/67138-h.htm), Hemingway uses that reputation economically: the joke about the taxi-driver makes the café stand for Montparnasse itself, a place so famous it has become the district’s default destination. That gives the scene both glamour and fatigue—the place is central, over-known, and therefore perfect for a novel about expatriate drift.

Paris, Île-de-France, France