Description
The Montparnasse Tower is a 210-meter office skyscraper in the Montparnasse district, on the Left Bank, and the tallest building within the city limits of Paris. It is also home to one of the best views of the city, from an observation deck on the 56th floor.
The reason to go up is the view. From the observation deck, 200 meters up, you can see 40 kilometers on a clear day, and watch planes take off from Orly. Above it, a rooftop terrace opens to the open air. The Eiffel Tower is in full sight, with, of course, no Tour Montparnasse in the picture.
The same floor has a restaurant, Ciel de Paris, and the deck gives you the whole city spread out below. The guard rail, to which antennae are attached, can be lowered to clear the view.
Parisians have a joke about the tower: the view from the top is the most beautiful in the city, because it is the only place from which you cannot see the tower. In 2008 the editors of Virtualtourist voted it the second-ugliest building in the world.
The Tour Montparnasse rose between 1969 and 1973 on the site of the old Montparnasse station, after years of controversy over its height. 210 meters, 59 floors, nearly all offices: it was the tallest skyscraper in France until 2011. Paris has never quite forgiven it.
The shock was such that two years after it was finished, buildings over seven stories were banned in the city center. The climber Alain Robert scaled its glass walls twice, with no ropes.
Below the tower runs the Montparnasse–Bienvenüe Métro station, and a shopping center sits at its foot. Only the offices on the perimeter of each floor have windows. It was designed by the architects Eugène Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien, and work began in 1968.
The reason to go up is the view. From the observation deck, 200 meters up, you can see 40 kilometers on a clear day, and watch planes take off from Orly. Above it, a rooftop terrace opens to the open air. The Eiffel Tower is in full sight, with, of course, no Tour Montparnasse in the picture.
The same floor has a restaurant, Ciel de Paris, and the deck gives you the whole city spread out below. The guard rail, to which antennae are attached, can be lowered to clear the view.
Parisians have a joke about the tower: the view from the top is the most beautiful in the city, because it is the only place from which you cannot see the tower. In 2008 the editors of Virtualtourist voted it the second-ugliest building in the world.
The Tour Montparnasse rose between 1969 and 1973 on the site of the old Montparnasse station, after years of controversy over its height. 210 meters, 59 floors, nearly all offices: it was the tallest skyscraper in France until 2011. Paris has never quite forgiven it.
The shock was such that two years after it was finished, buildings over seven stories were banned in the city center. The climber Alain Robert scaled its glass walls twice, with no ropes.
Below the tower runs the Montparnasse–Bienvenüe Métro station, and a shopping center sits at its foot. Only the offices on the perimeter of each floor have windows. It was designed by the architects Eugène Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien, and work began in 1968.