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Hôtel Central

1 bis rue du Maine · 75014 Paris

Central Hotel Paris is an operating hotel at 1 bis rue du Maine in Montparnasse. It offers single, double, twin, triple, and connecting arrangements.

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Explore the history of Hôtel Central
IllustrationBright present-day color view of Central Hotel Paris on rue du Maine
The standing neighborhood hotel in clear contemporary daylight, with guests arriving from the small square.Editorial illustration

The hotel today

Open for stays

Accommodation in Paris.

Choose your room

Compare the options

Room layouts and rates vary by category and date.

Beyond the booking

The story of this address

Explore the people, history, and neighborhood.

Choose your room

A room for your stay in Paris

Compare the options, then check your dates with the hotel for availability, current rates, and the exact room configuration.

Standard Single11 m² · one single bed

A private bathroom, Wi-Fi, television, and a desk.

Superior Single11 m² · double bed

A room for one traveler with air conditioning, television, and a desk.

Double12–15 m² · double bed

A double room with air conditioning and Wi-Fi.

Superior Twin or TripleTwo or three guests

Twin rooms have separate beds. The triple arrangement combines a double and a single bed; confirm the chosen room’s configuration.

Connecting rooms30 m² combined · up to four guests

A Standard Double connects with a Superior Double. Air conditioning is listed for the Superior room; check both rooms’ facilities.

During your stay

Amenities and guest services

  • Private bathrooms
  • Wi-Fi
  • Television
  • Desk

Room configuration matters

Air conditioning is listed for selected categories. Confirm the facilities of the exact room you reserve.

Staying together

The hotel lists triple and connecting options. Reserve the arrangement explicitly rather than assuming separate bookings will be adjacent.

Stay at Central Hotel Paris

Choose your dates to check room options and availability. Confirm breakfast, additional charges, and cancellation terms for the rate you choose.

+33 1 43 20 69 15
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Sources for the hotel today

Operating status reviewed 2026-09-25. Room and service information comes from the sources below; confirm current arrangements with the hotel.

The history of this address

Hotel · Montparnasse (14th) · 14e arrondissement

The history of Hôtel Central

The buildingStill standing
Getting inIn, as a customer
What's there nowStill the same

A working hotel still trading under the Central name at the same address. Bookable — but a hotel rather than a public interior, so it is not somewhere to wander into.

A small Montparnasse hotel where Henry Miller lodged during several stretches of 1931 and 1932, sharing a room with Alfred Perlès in the leanest part of his Paris decade. Still trading under the same name at the same address.

Address
1 bis rue du Maine, 75014 Paris
Years
Miller lodged here in 1931–32, sharing a room with Alfred Perlès
IllustrationBright present-day color view of Central Hotel Paris on rue du Maine

The standing neighborhood hotel in clear contemporary daylight, with guests arriving from the small square.

Editorial illustration

The neighborhood

Montparnasse

Hôtel Central is in Montparnasse.

The place, briefly

Henry Miller arrived in Paris in 1930 with almost nothing, and for the next two years he had no fixed address so much as a sequence of temporary ones — borrowed rooms, friends' floors, cheap hotels taken for a week at a time.

The Hôtel Central on the rue du Maine was one of the more durable of them. He lodged here across several periods in 1931 and 1932, sharing a room with Alfred Perlès, the Austrian writer who was his closest companion of those years and who turns up throughout the Paris books.

Sharing a hotel room is the practical fact behind a lot of what gets romanticised about Miller's Paris. Tropic of Cancer was written by someone who did not reliably have a door of his own, and the book's restlessness — the constant moving between other people's rooms and tables — is a description of how he actually lived rather than a literary effect.

The hotel is still here, still called the Central, at 1 bis rue du Maine. It is a working hotel rather than a public room, so unlike the Zeyer or the Bouquet d'Alésia it is somewhere to note from the pavement rather than walk into.

Key facts

When
Several periods across 1931 and 1932
Who with
Alfred Perlès — they shared a room
Why it matters
Tropic of Cancer was written by a man without a reliable door of his own
Today
Still a working hotel under the Central name at 1 bis rue du Maine
Access
Bookable, but a hotel rather than a public interior

In images

The modest working hotel today at 1 bis rue du Maine, still trading under the Central name.Editorial illustration
The standing neighborhood hotel in clear contemporary daylight, with guests arriving from the small square.Editorial illustration
Historically informed editorial reconstruction of the rue du Maine hotel during Miller and Perlès's stays.Artistic reconstruction
An ordinary early-1930s hotel morning in natural period color; precise people and vehicles are interpretive, and Miller and Perlès are not depicted.Artistic reconstruction
The compact 24-hour reception and lounge during a normal daytime check-in.Editorial illustration
Morning service in the hotel's small breakfast room, with its buffet, staircase and closely spaced tables.Editorial illustration
A present-day double room in beige and chocolate tones; no claim is made that this décor survives from Miller's stay.Editorial illustration

Timeline

  1. 1930

    Miller arrives in Paris with almost no money and begins two years of temporary addresses.

  2. 1931–32

    He lodges at the Hôtel Central across several periods, sharing a room with Alfred Perlès.

  3. 1934

    Tropic of Cancer is published in Paris.

On the map

Questions before you go

Did Henry Miller live at the Hôtel Central?

He lodged there across several periods in 1931 and 1932, sharing a room with Alfred Perlès. It was one of the more durable of the temporary addresses that made up his first two years in Paris.

Can you stay there?

It is still a working hotel under the Central name at 1 bis rue du Maine, so it is bookable. But it is a hotel rather than a public room — worth noting from the pavement rather than wandering into, unlike the Alésia cafés a little further south.

Why does a shared hotel room matter?

Because it is the practical fact behind what usually gets romanticised. Tropic of Cancer was written by a man who did not reliably have a door of his own, and the book's restless movement between other people's rooms and tables describes how he actually lived.

Writers who knew this place

Illustrated portrait of Henry Miller

Henry Miller

American · The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.

Lived here · 1931–1932

Miller lodged here across several periods in 1931-32, sharing a room with Alfred Perlès.

— Henry Miller: New Perspectives

Within walking distance

Bright color view of the teal and gold Hotel Delambre frontage in Montparnasse

Hotel · Montparnasse (14th)

Hôtel Delambre, 35 rue Delambre

The Montparnasse hotel where Paul Gauguin stayed in 1891 in the weeks before he sailed for Tahiti — still trading, with a plaque inside the entrance recording it.

Visit the place
Bright color view of the modern station district that replaced the old studios

Apartment · Montparnasse

26 rue du Départ

The demolished Montparnasse studio building where Diego Rivera and Angelina Beloff lived from 1912 to 1919 and Piet Mondrian worked before and after the First World War.

Visit the place
Bright color view of diners and pedestrians outside number 47 today

Press · Montparnasse (14th)

Atelier Mourlot, 47 rue du Montparnasse

The lithography workshop where Marc Chagall spent decades after the war making colour prints — the same presses that printed for Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Miró.

Visit the place
Bright present-day color view of Hôtel Lenox Montparnasse

Hotel · Montparnasse (14th)

Hôtel Lenox Montparnasse

A Montparnasse hotel where Henry Miller and his wife June stayed briefly in 1930, in the unsettled first months of his Paris decade. It still operates at the same address as the Hôtel Lenox Montparnasse.

Visit the place
References

References

The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Hôtel Central, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.

  1. 1Henry Miller: New Perspectives

    Nonfiction
    Bloomsbury Academic
    Used for

    The scholarly reconstruction of Miller's Paris addresses, which places him at the Hôtel Central across 1931–32 sharing a room with Alfred Perlès.

    View source

  2. 2OpenStreetMap

    Map data
    Used for

    Map data used to verify addresses, geographic coordinates, and the placement associated with Hôtel Central.

    View source

  1. 3Henry Miller: The Paris Years

    Biography
    Brassaï, 1995
    Used for

    Biographical evidence used to verify chronology, relationships, and historical context connected to Hôtel Central.

  2. 4Henry Miller: A Life

    Biography
    W. W. Norton, 1991
    Used for

    Biographical evidence used to verify chronology, relationships, and historical context connected to Hôtel Central.

i
Why these sources are here

These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.

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