La Coupole was founded in 1927 when Montparnasse housed a large artistic and literary community – expatriates and members of the Lost Generation. They decorated the place in the contemporary art deco style and were regular patrons. It quickly became a huge success—a place to be seen for the Tout Paris of Paris between the wars. The downstairs “Dancing de la Coupole” opened in late 1928 and became a haven for dancers of the rumba, bolero, guaracha, samba and other dances into the 1960s. Among its early patrons were Jean Cocteau, Foujita, Kisling, Giacometti, Zadkine, Josephine Baker, Man Ray, Georges Braque, Louis Aragon, and Elsa Triolet. Its fans during the 1930s included Picasso, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Sonia Delaunay, André Malraux, Jacques Prévert, Marc Chagall, and Edith Piaf. And during the 2020s… Les Historiennes!
