The best views in Paris - if you're brave. (Tour Montparnasse)

Member Name: The Daz

Product:	Tour Montparnasse
Date:	26/09/08 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unimpeded views of the City.

Disadvantages: A touch exposed at the top.

Lurking as only a 59 storey building can do, the Tour Montparnasse (that's Montparnasse Tower to most) is an icon of near-pointless symbolism and the folly of planning arguments.

As simple and as graceful as it stands, many Parisians are still unhappy at its presence in the otherwise low-rise area to the south of the City Centre. Towering 210m into the air, and completed in 1972, it remains the tallest building in France (the Eiffel Tower is patently not a building!), and the ninth tallest building in the European Union. Current plans to renovate and increase the height of the AXA Tower in Paris will relegate it to the less famed category; 'tallest thing in France that isn't a building and has an observation deck'. I digress - all this statistics lark is very useful for padding a review, but quickly numbs the brain!

Location: The 15th Arrondissement (borough) of Paris Central, atop the Montparnasse-Bienvenue Metro Station, which rather handily serves lines 6 and 13. You can whizz here from just about anything of interest: The Louvre, Les Invalides, L'Etoile, Les Halles, Gare Du Nord etc in about 10 minutes. If you come out of the station to street level you need to bend your neck dangerously upwards to locate the Tower, else you'll wonder where it might be hiding in the locality. Directly opposite the Tower is the enormous Gare Montparnasse (Atlantique), which serves the Poitou and Garonne (South West) bits of France by rail, and also has a very pleasant park atop the station roof between the insulating office blocks (another top travel tip there).

If you can get through the revolving doors of the Tower without being barged by a busy French businessperson, you make your way to the Ticket Desk for the Observation Deck which is on the 56th floor. Prices are 10 Euros for Adults, 7 for Students, and 4.50 for Sprogs 7 and over. Anklebiters go free. Admission is generally from 9am to 11:30pm (10:30pm in Winter) - with the last lift going up half an hour before closing. Times also vary on Public Holidays and anything involving a Saints Day (it's a Catholic thing).

Rather than a swish restaurant up at the top - the Tower has 'Espace 56', which is a panoramic salon that can be hired out for business/entertainment events. After going through a bag check and waiting for a lift (Europe's fastest no less) - you arrive on the 56th floor to be greeted by many large windows on one side of the building, a gift shop peddling Tower related tat, and a pleasant but overpriced café 360. The views are obviously stunning, and you can see for miles. Actually you can't - they're illegal and have been replaced by Les Kilometres, which are smaller and more perfectly formed in true Gallic Style.

If you're feeling brave, a sign points to a dark stairwell. Rather unimaginatively, this is the method used to reach the 59th floor Observation Deck. It's almost an afterthought, but still, despite my fear of heights I ventured bravely upwards. You'd think that I'd learn not to climb all these Towers and Observation Platforms around the world, but then I must surely have a subconscious urge to test my Acrophobia, or possibly I'm just a masochist.

Nevertheless - the scariest thing about the top floor, is that it is the roof. There is no ceiling, and only a 5ft fence prevents you from falling onto the parapet, below which is certain squidgy death. I have to say I scuttled towards the Helipad in the middle of the roof and sat down to calm my nerves for a while. Once refortified, I ambled calmly around the perimeter, goggling at sights of the Eiffel Tower, The Musee D'Orsay, the hilly mount and white-domed cathedral of Sacre-Coeur, Notre Dame standing tall on the Ile D'Orleans, back behind me to the Gare Montparnasse, eyeing up the picknicking office workers to see if they eat anything save Brie and Grapes, and then further out to the Business Hub of La Defense and the forests that surround the metropolis of Paris. I firmly believe that these unimpeded views seen in person are worth the steep entrance prices most tall objects charge, as it's the one place you can feel the vastness of the Earth, and witness the insane scurry of people and machines across the landscape. The exposed nature adds to the thrill of seeing everything, although if there were more than a light breeze, even the most hardy of souls might feel a touch more than nervous.

It's often joked that the Tower offers the best view in Paris, as it is the only place from which the Tower itself cannot be seen. Whilst the Asbestos laden, plainly designed Montparnasse Tower may not win any more design awards, it's hardly an eyesore, but then, the French are obsessed with what everyone thinks and of preserving Gallic Superiority, so perhaps they think it's an evil plot the hated Rosbifs thought up across the Channel and secretly erected over night when De Gaulle wasn't looking.
On a final note - as hard as it is to write a long review about what is a very simple Tourist Attraction - a trip is well worth your while if in Paris, if only to see all these amazing sights you shuffle between with all the trillion other jostling visitors, and to take a moment to step back and admire the beauty of Paris, instead of complaining about some pesky scooter rider ignoring a red light.

Summary: Brilliant experience, and a little scary.