my russians are in a part of Paris that is slightly out of teh way and
 rundown - where would that be?  It is 1923 -1924 They can walk from
there to an area with  more attractive shops and cinemas - where in
Paris would this be? they end u[p in  a park or a square - which one?
(it does not have to be too big)in the area or nearbye and also a
small theatre. One of them works as an extar in films - what films
were being made in France at this time ? Did any Russians actually
direct films? who were teh leading film makers?  What current social
and artistic ideas and practitioners  would be of most interst to an
educated White Russian ? What I need is a general  'French' context
outside of their own national concerns.

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 21 Oct 2003 02:17 PDT

Hello Gaucho - 

Before taking this further, I think I should check with you how nice
the "attractive shops" need to be and how bad you want the "rundown"
area to be. At the moment my thoughts are focussed on a particular
area which was popular with emigrés, White Russian and otherwise, and
artists, including filmmakers. Since you suggest your Russians have
artistic interests, they might well be drawn to it. It was not a rich
area, though by 1923, the cafés and main streets were becoming
smarter. This area provides everything you describe - at least two
cinemas, a small theatre, park etc. -  unless you want there to be
fashionable shops.

Your Russians could be "out of the way", in a very poor area a mile or
so distant, or somewhere a bit nearer and less poor, if you want.

The neighbourhood I have in mind for the "attractive" area was not
elegant, but had lively cafés and plenty of cultural activity. Just
beyond, in the other direction from the poor rundown area, there was a
department store.

Let me know if you think this would be a suitable setting for your
characters. Although there is a fair amount of information on life in
1920s Paris, it's quite hard to find information on shops, so please
say if you have any specific requirements about these.

Looking forward to hearing what you think.

Thanks - Leli

---

Clarification of Question by gaucho34-ga on 22 Oct 2003 07:50 PDT

that is very interesting - there are actually three areas: one where
large numbers of emigres lived, as you say - with Russian cafes, 
shops, etc, and another area a bit apart from that, (a mile would be
OK) which should be rundown, poor and shabby but not actually a slum.
The shops are not ultra grand, just attractive and modestly
fashionable - they would seem better than that to someone with no
money!! Also nice enough to be recognised as fashionable to someone
who once had had money and had some taste. If you need more
clarification please ask - my knowledge of Paris is practically nil,
which is why I sound vague.

Hello Gaucho - thanks for getting back to me.

If you don't know much about Paris, let's start with a little
orientation. The city is cut in half by the River Seine. To the south
is the Left Bank, which was the centre of the artistic, literary and
émigré life of the 1920s. At the heart of it all was Montparnasse. I
suggest that your Russians might live on the southern, shabbier
fringes of Montparnasse, in Alésia, and walk half or three-quarters of
a mile north to its lively centre. For smarter shops they might need
to go slightly further, to the northern edge of the district, more
like a mile from where they started.

Many of the foreigners, including Russians, flooding into Paris in
this period headed for the Left Bank. Montparnasse itself had an
irresistible attraction for anyone interested in art or literature.
The only possible drawback I can think of in choosing it as your
setting is a rather exaggerated (?) reputation it had for poverty.
I'll talk more about that in a minute, but first I'd like to say that
it might be possible for me to shift the actual locations for you, as
long as we stay on the Left Bank. So, when you've read through this
answer and all the links, please get straight back to me if you'd like
to go a bit further into some aspect of it. I thought, since you said
you didn't know much about Paris, it would be better to offer you this
and then tweak the details if necessary.


This map showing the 20 arrondissements, or subdivisions, of Paris
will help with an overview:
http://www.parisbeyond.com/maps/map1c3.html

In the little map you can see a yellow box showing the area covered by
the larger scale map, which has Montparnasse in its lower right
section. (Note how Montparnasse overlaps the arrondissement
boundaries.) Your characters may live rather to the south, in the area
around Rue d'Alésia in the fourteenth arondissement (click below the
yellow box on your map to see Place (square) Alésia). Alésia, where
the Minsk-born painter Soutine had a studio in 1924, could still
qualify as Montparnasse but is on its fringes. In 1923, walking north
from there to where the Boulevard Montparnasse meets Boulevard Raspail
would bring you to the lively centre of the "quartier". This
crossroads was known as "Carrefour Vavin" and had four cafés, all
attracting custom from the avant-garde creative people of the day, as
well as others who had come to soak up the atmosphere. Though this
area had been solidly working-class at the turn of the century, after
the war it was becoming more prosperous, with extra trade generated by
the "buzz". In 1923 the Dôme café added an enclosed glass terrace to
accommodate the extra business.
http://www.metropoleparis.com/2001/631/cafe631e.jpg
http://posters.shoppingsavvy.com/Dome,-Montparnasse.html
http://www.metropoleparis.com/2000/516/cafe516b.jpg

Not surprisingly for Paris, much of the action was in the cafés. They
were where "everybody" gathered, all day long, and in the evening
there was more nightlife too: theatre, music hall, a couple of cinemas
and gatherings in private "salons". The shops got classier as you
headed north. There were big stores and small boutiques, though for
the height of Paris fashion you'd have needed to cross the river to
another area altogether.

Some descriptions of Paris in the twenties rather romanticise the
pennilessness of the "starving artists" in Montparnasse. It's true
that many were not rich, but the situation has been exaggerated. Some
of them were poor by middle-class, but not by working-class,
standards, and were living on unearned income. In fact, a couple of
them (Fujita and Modigliani) were known for installing baths and
running hot water in their apartments, before electricity was widely
available in French homes. The poverty idea was also fuelled by the
difficulty some of the foreign exiles had in getting money from home
during the first world war. At this time Marie Vassilieff, an artist
born in Smolensk, opened a "cantine" offering cheap meals for émigré
artists in difficulty, but she saw no need to continue with this in
the twenties.

In the 1920s, not only was the Dôme adding a terrace, but whole new
buildings were going up in response to new interest and money in the
area, like this hotel whose façade dates from 1924:
http://www.raspail-montparnasse.com/
Even before the war, some trend-setting new apartments went up nearby
in the Rue Vavin. Their style was widely copied in the 20s and 30s.
http://www.parisbalades.com/Arrond/14/14ebdMontparnasse.htm

Heading north, you would find the university area, bookshops,
including the famous "Shakespeare and Co" run by the American Sylvia
Beach, and smarter cafés and shops, though information on shops is
rather scarce.

I'm hoping you have a paper street map of Paris to help you locate
places, but if not, use this "Mappy" site, which is useful, though a
bit fiddly:
http://mappy.com/
If you type in "Vavin", it will offer you a map centred on Metro stop
Vavin which is at the famous crossroads, the heart of Montparnasse,
now renamed Place Pablo Picasso.


==================
1920s MONTPARNASSE
================== 

BACKGROUND
----------

"Thus began Montpanasse's golden age. 'Le Carrefour du Montparnasse
Est le Centre du Monde' [The Montparnasse crossroads is the Centre of
the World] was written on the back of the Café du Parnasse's second
exhibition catalogue in June 1921."
http://www.metropoleparis.com/1999/403/403foujt.html

"Paris attracted all kinds of artists from a wide range of
nationalities, and in the years surrounding the First World War
Montparnasse was the place to be."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/features/paris/people.shtml

"The cafés and bars of Montparnasse were a vital meeting place where
new ideas were hatched and mulled over. "
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/features/paris/places.shtml

"While most of the artistic community gathered in Montparnasse were
struggling to eke out an existence, well-heeled American socialites
such as Peggy Guggenheim and Edith Wharton from New York City and
Harry Crosby from Boston were caught in the fever of creativity.
Crosby and his wife Caresse would establish the Black Sun Press in
Paris in 1927, publishing works by such future luminaries as D. H.
Lawrence, Archibald MacLeish, James Joyce, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane,
Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker and others.
[...]The cafés at the centre of Montparnasse's night-life were in the
Carrefour Vavin, now renamed Place Pablo-Picasso."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse

"The bohemians' legacy is to be found in famous bars/brasseries/
seafood restaurants such as La Rotonde, Le Dome, Le Coupole, and Le
Select, on the Boulevard du Montparnasse not far from its intersection
with Boulevard Raspail."
http://kunmr2.chem.ukans.edu/~dave/pages/aunicwindowr.htm

"Only in 1923, when the Dôme was entirely renovated, was its
celebrated terrace added, making it the most popular café in
Montparnasse"
http://www.paris.org/Kiosque/oct00/montparnasse.html

More on Montparnasse: pictures of Carrefour Vavin and "La Ruche" (the
beehive) where many artists had studios.
http://www.metropoleparis.com/2003/806/806ruche.html


CINEMA & THEATRE
----------------

La rue de la Gaîté, just to the west of the Montparnasse cemetery, was
full of nightlife, including the Gaîté theatre.

It was a centre for restaurants, theatres and "guinguettes". (a dance
hall/café - usually open-air or on a terrace)
"Des guinguettes, restaurants et théâtres s'y étaient agglutinés et
firent de cette rue leur artère principale."
http://www.histoire-en-ligne.com/article.php3?id_article=218

Théâtre Montparnasse (later called Théâtre Montparnasse-Gaston-Baty)
http://fr.encyclopedia.yahoo.com/articles/m/m0005712_p0.html

La Gaîté Montparnasse - a theatre/music hall (click on "historique")
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/gaite/cadre.html
Picture of it here if you click on "Le quartier gaité":
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/promeneur/14eme.htm
(and links to toher parts of the 14th arrondissement)
(Today's Gaîté Lyrique is in another part of Paris.)

Bobino - a cabaret or café-concert in the Rue de la Gaieté
http://www.udenap.org/images/caf_conc_photos/affiche_bobino.jpg

-------

Another Montparnasse theatre: Le Théâtre de Montrouge
http://www.silverscreens.com/images/14/mistr_montrouge.jpg

Cinemas around 1920s Montparnasse:

The Montrouge Palace 
http://www.lips.org/bio_sandberg_GB.asp

Maine Rive-Gauche
95 av de Maine

Mistral
70 av de Général-Leclerc
http://www.cinematour.com/theatres_fo.php?province=FR&page=5


PARKS
-----

The Jardins de l'Observatoire were long narrow gardens joining
Montparnasse to the Jardin de Luxembourg.
http://tourisme.voila.fr/villes/paris/fra/sit/ville/06_jobse/zb01.htm
Nowadays they're called Jardin Marco Polo.

The Cimetière du Montparnasse is the famous cemetery, often considered
a Paris park:
http://tourisme.voila.fr/villes/paris/fra/sit/ville/14_cmont/zb02.htm

There's a little park called Parc Montparnasse, which shows up on
"Mappy.com" as a few grey curves off the Rue d'Odessa. I'd guess this
might be like some other Parisian open spaces - gravel with a few
trees and benches, but couldn't find a picture or description online.
(Except learning that a statue/fountain was installed there later on.)
You might like this 1900 picture of the nearby Rue d'Odessa:
http://www.ruavista.com/paulE.htm
(second postcard down on left)


HEADING NORTH
-------------

There is less information on the shops than I'd like. If your educated
Russians want bookshops, they should head northwards up the Boulevard
St. Michel, into the university area. This direction eventually leads
to the actual "Left Bank" of the Seine, famous for booksellers
(bouquinistes) who set up stalls on the road running beside the river.

For other shopping, they might try the Rue de Rennes, which had at
least two department stores:
 
"Magasin Félix Potin"
http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/O0012776.html

"Bazar de la Rue de Rennes" (pictures are only of other stores in the
same chain)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/parallel/thesis/images/mu.htm

Also in walking distance, but a little further west, the Rue de Sèvres
had a big store:
http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/O0012841.html
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Mont_S_Michel.html

This picture of a group of shops near Odéon might interest you:
http://www.insecula.com/salle/MS02015.html
It looks as if it's a "passage" with indoor shopping streets, like a
modern mall.

I saw a "Passage des Epinettes" on the map, which may have been one of
the traditional shopping "passages" or arcades, a bit like the one in
the photo above. (Leads off the Boulevard Montparnasse.)


======
ALESIA 
======

I suggest you place your Russians in a side street off the Rue
d'Alésia, but not too far west as in that direction it ran into the
badly rundown area of Plaisance-Pernéty. Alésia sits between the worst
part (in 1923-4) of the 14th arrondissement, and the vibrant centre of
Montparnasse. It would be a half or three-quarter mile walk to
Carrefour Vavin and the Rue de la Gaîté, and a mile or so to the
smarter nothern fringes of Montparnasse.

Background on Alésia
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:11Zqc_WQspgJ:www.metropoleparis.com/1998/314/alesi314.html+%22rue+d%27Al%C3%A9sia+is+%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

This page has a picture of a typical Parisian street sign for the "Rue
d'Alésia"
http://bus38.online.fr/parcourseng.html

A picture from "Quartier Alésia" which may show buildings that were
there in the twenties:
http://parispaspris.free.fr/vestiges03.htm

The Plaisance was considered insalubrious from the beginning of the
twentieth century:
http://paroisse.ndtravail.free.fr/histoire_de_la_paroisse.htm

Here's a map of the 14th arrondissement:
http://www.mairie14.paris.fr/mairie14/jsp/Portail.jsp?id_page=53


======
PEOPLE
======

Some of the characters around in 1920s Montparnasse:

Marie Vassilieff - biography
http://www.harmonia-universum.com/ab/page2.html

"What many historians remember, is Marie Vassilieff's cantine. She was
distressed by the sorry plight of foreign artists cut off from their
pensions because of the war, so she turned her atelier into a nearly
free lunch."
(Pensions=private income, atelier=studio))
http://www.metropoleparis.com/1999/403/403foujt.html

Kiki of Montparnasse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Prin

"In the years between the two world wars, Montparnasse, on the Left
Bank of Paris, was a hotbed of artistic experimentation, social
change, and notorious affairs. Man Ray, the renowned photographer, was
there to document it all: he took his camera into cafes, salons,
artists' studios, and writers' homes, and the resulting pictures
provide a singular--and intimate--perspective on this legendary period
in cultural and art history. [...]
He lived a double life, dressing for dinner in society, then
reassuming a bohemian posture for life among the writers and
painters."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810943336/ref=pd_luc_21_lc_a1x0/103-3221163-5690225

Man Ray
Moments from his life in 1923:
"
"In 1923 I was an established photographer"
[...]
July 6. Return to Reason is presented at the Coeur à barbe soiree at
the Theatre Michel.

Dudley Murphy asks Man Ray to make a film. The project falls through
and Murphy convinces Fernand Leger to make Ballet mecanique with Man
Ray doing some of the photography.

November. The Jockey opens at Montparnasse with Kiki performing.

December.Marcel Duchamp, moves to the Hotel Istria, 29 rue
Campagne-Premire next door to Man Ray. "
http://imageexchange.com/exhibits/manray/intro1.shtml

Archipenko, Chagall, Léger, Lipchitz, Soutine, Zadkine and many, many
other artists and writers began their careers in Paris while working,
living, or both, at La Ruche.
[...]
Many other artists and writers who did not live there, such as
Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Modigliani, Rousseau, and Salmon,
frequented the place, cross-fertilizing creative talents.
http://www.metropoleparis.com/2003/806/806ruche.html

Ernest Hemingway 
The beginning of his book on 1920s Paris has the kind of details which
support the view of Montparnasse as a place for impoverished writers.
"It was either six or eight flights up to the top floor and it was
very cold and I knew how much it would cost for a bundle of small
twigs, three wire-wrapped packets of short, half-pencil length pieces
of split pine to catch fire from the twigs, and then the bundle of
half-dried lengths of hard wood that I must buy to make a fire that
would warm the room."
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780684824994&displayonly=CHP

Soutine - painter
http://www.france-belarus.com/article.php3?id_article=40



===================
1920s FILM IN PARIS
===================

A lecture on René Clair says he saw post-WWI French cinema being born
"in a fever". It seemed to him to be the newest, most revolutionary
medium of expression:

"Sous ses yeux, le cinéma français d’après-guerre naît dans la fièvre,
avec Marcel L’Herbier, Abel Gance, Epstein, Feyder, avec Delluc"
http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/discours_reception/moinot.html

I thought you might be particularly interested in the "Russian émigré
studio Albatros". In 1920 a group including director Alexandre
Volkoff, actors Yvan Mosjoukine and Nathalia Lissenko, and producer
Alexandre Kamenka, bought studios from Pathé. They are described as a
group of enthusiasts working on silent films, following the "wild
rhythm" of their star Mosjoukine and his directors. According to this
article they launched many talented young people and had a huge
influence on French cinema:
http://www.russie.net/article.php3?id_article=534

The Albatros studio was at Montreuil, on the eastern edges of Paris:
http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/mediasociete/cinema/promotion/diffusion_nc/collections/galerie/realisateurs/149.html

Volkoff's work
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0901502/

Some information about his 1923 silent serial "La Maison du Mystère":
http://pub1.ezboard.com/fmovieserialmessageboardssilentserials.showMessage?topicID=204.topic


There were plenty of other "cinéastes" in Paris.

Directors and their films
-------------------------

Julien Duvivier
http://www.lips.org/bio_Duvivier_gb.asp

Abel Gance
http://www.artandculture.com/arts/artist?artistId=1287

Marcel L’Herbier
http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/nf_mlherbier.html

Jean Epstein (note his "spell at the Russian émigré studio Albatros")
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/9384/directors/epstein.htm

Jacques Feyder
http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?mp=b&c=116051

Ladislas Starewitch
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ls/tbiograp.htm

Louis Delluc
http://www.lips.org/bio_delluc_GB.asp

Producers
---------

Bernard Natan
http://www.lips.org/bio_natan_GB.asp

Serge Sandberg
http://www.lips.org/bio_sandberg_GB.asp

Jean Benoit-Lévy
http://www.lips.org/bio_benoitlevy.asp



=======================
1920s RUSSIANS IN PARIS
=======================

I'm sure you already know there were many Russians in Paris at that
time. Many of them lived slightly west of Montparnasse in the 15th
arrondissement. You can get some idea of the more famous names by
looking at a list of a few of the 10,000 people buried in the Russian
cemetery on the southern fringes of town: "Cimetière russe de
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois".
http://www.russie.net/france/gen-cimetiere.htm

A few examples at random:

Serge Boulgakov (1871 Livny, province d'Orel - 1944 Paris), theologian
and priest, former Marxist, expelled from USSR in 1923

Ivan Bounine (1870 Voronej - 1953 Paris), writer of prose and poetry -
emigrated to the Balkans in 1920, then to Paris

Alexandre Mosjoukine (1877-1952) of the Albatros studios, and his
brother Ivan Mosjoukine (Michel Chodzko) (1887-1939), opera and cinema
artists

There may be other pages on the same "Russians in France" website
which would interest you:
http://www.russie.net/france/

Little Russia in 1920s Paris
----------------------------

"La petite Russie" was in the 15th arrondissement, to the west of
Montparnasse.

People fleeing Russia settled in the 15th or nearby because there were
plenty of apartments being built and one could get work there (e.g. in
factories) that didn't require too much knowledge of French. Gradually
"Russian" shops, churches, restaurants etc. were built.
"Beaucoup d’entre eux se réfugièrent en France et, plus
particulièrement dans le XVe arrondissement de Paris et dans les
banlieues avoisinantes. Leur choix était dû essentiellement au fait
que ces lieux étaient en plein essor de constructions d’immeubles à
loyer accessible et qu'on pouvait y trouver du travail ne nécessitant
pas une grande connaissance de la langue française (ex: usines
Citroën, Renault,...). Le nombre élevé d’églises, de magasins, de
restaurants, d'associations de toutes sortes, ont fait du XVe
arrondissement comme une "petite" Russie."
http://www.paris15histoire.com/Russie.html

"Le 15e arrondissement de Paris n'a-t-il pas été appelé "la petite
Russie" dans les années 1920 ! [...] Ce passé, exceptionnel dans
l'histoire de l'art, marqué par la présence dans le 15e de Altman,
Archipenko, Chagall, ...reste très présent dans l'arrondissement."
http://www.russie.net/article.php3?id_article=552

I'm not sure if there were any Russian cafés yet, even in the 15th
arrondissement. Paris was already well-supplied with drinking and
eating places!


====================
1920S PARIS & FRANCE
====================

"The First World War devastated many of the assumptions of the
nineteenth century. Many in Europe had thought technology would lead
to an ever more stable and prosperous mankind. The Great War showed it
could kill and maim millions. The art and music of that period must be
seen in the context of this radical shift in perspective. Things
weren't just going to get better and better, old assumptions were
turned over and hey... if the world's in a mess - maybe you should
just say to hell with it, and have a big party.
During the first quarter of the 20th century Paris became the magnet
for a growing international colony of young artists, poets and
musicians. The American poet Ezra Pound described it as the centre of
the world, and the place for those who had "cast off the sanctified
stupidities and timidities" and were looking for radical new
directions. "
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/features/paris/background.shtml

"Paris in this era was probably the most liberal place in Europe. It
certainly was a lot more easy-going than the United States, where
prohibition was being enforced. There was also a more liberal attitude
to sex."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/features/paris/pleasure.shtml

"After the 'War to end all wars' and the Russian Revolution, Europe
was in ferment and nowhere was [the] brew headier than in Paris."
http://users.macunlimited.net/msteer/watcher/wparis.html

" From 1921 to 1940, Sylvia Beach, and her companion, Adrienne
Monnier, ran the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore frequented by
James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Ernest Hemingway, at 12 rue de l'Odéon.
Café Voltaire at 1 rue de l'Odéon was a frequent stop for Paul
Verlaine. Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud caroused the streets and cafés
of the Latin Quarter, corresponding to the 5th arrondissement, and
scandalized le tout Paris. When they met with other poets in the Hôtel
des Etrangers (still there, on boulevard St-Michel), they drank
inordinate amounts of absinthe while reciting graphic verse."
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:0Qxdqpf5JgAJ:www.francetourism.com/gayguide/art_outrageousParis.asp+%22boulevard+st+michel%22+1920+OR+1921+OR+1922+OR+1923+OR+1924+OR+19205&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

From a political viewpoint, this was the period of the Third Republic.
In 1923 and the first half of 1924 the President was Alexandre
Millerand. He was followed by Gaston Doumergue in June 1924.
"LA IIIème RÉPUBLIQUE DE 1870 A 1940
ALEXANDRE MILLERAND (1920-1924)  Président de la République"
http://gilles.maillet.free.fr/histoire/france/france.htm

"The War had rallied political parties to the defence of the nation,
leading to the formation of the Union Sacrée, symbolised by the strong
personality of Clemenceau, the "Father of Victory".  He remained in
power until January 1920.
Political life in the 1920s was dominated from then on by right-wing
coalitions, except for the period (1924-1926) when the Cartel des
Gauches (an alliance between Socialists and Radicals) was in power. 
Since December 1920, when the French Communist Party was formed, the
Socialist Left had been divided. "
http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/france/gb/histoire/histoire04.html

Don't forget the Metro, essential to the life of Paris. These signs
from Montparnasse are typical:
http://www.planete-typographie.com/infos/typo/denfert-rochereau.html



As I said at the beginning, I would be very happy to follow up any
queries you have about this, or help with translating any French
references which I haven't explained fully. It was an interesting
challenge to dig out the actual facts you needed - location of
theatres and shops, as well as finding a shabbier area nearby - to
expand on a general overview of Montparnasse. Your book sounds
intriguing; good luck with it.

Best wishes - Leli


Search strategy:

I already had a general, rather vague, idea of the Left Bank in that
era, but had to search carefully for the kind of details you wanted.
Many of the searches included these terms to get the right period:
"années vingt" OR "années 1920" OR twenties OR 1920s OR 1923 OR 1924

I often needed to eliminate hotel websites, and so added '-hotel' to
many searches.

These are the main words and phrases I used, either on their own or in
combination:

Rive Gauche
Left Bank
Paris
Montparnasse 
Plan OR carte OR map
14ème OR 14e arrondissement
6ème arrondissement
5ème arrondissement
15ème arrondissement
Alésia
Plaisance
Jardins OR parcs
Théâtre
Gaîté
Cinéma
Cinéaste
Film
Magasin
Boutiques
Passages OR galeries
Russe OR Russie

Then I followed up personal and place names appearing in searches.

this is an excellent answer - i have looked at the maps and I think
Alysia is where my protagonists live - my story is loosely (very
loosely!) based on an incident involving a russian family whio lived
in Clamart, but it seems wrong for my fictitious  people - now I can
see where they would spend their time  and what was going on around
them -  They seem to have a context - also teh film names were most
helpful - lots of information here to choose from! If I ask more
questiosn as teh book progresses , it is simply because the
developement of the story needs different places, but so far, it is
exactly right!  I am hoping to  get a grant which will allow me to go
to Paris to walk it all out, and I have printed all the maps and  your
answer - now I know where to go and what I will be looking for!  
Thank you  so much

Thank-you very much for the generous tip and kind words. It's really
nice to know you found the answer was what you wanted.

It would be great if you could get to Paris to explore on foot. Of
course, you'll have to allow for Montparnasse and the area northwards
being full of chic boutiques that weren't there in the twenties. Some
of the poorer parts of the 14th arrondissement have been extensively
redeveloped, I believe, with concrete blocks replacing slums. You
should see plaques on buildings commemorating writers/artists who
lived or worked there.

Have a wonderful time if you do get to Paris - and best of luck with
the book!
Leli