The Tour Maine-Montparnasse, greatest often known as Tour Montparnasse or Montparnasse Tower, is among the most well-known landmarks in Paris. With 59 flooring and 210 m excessive, the Tower is Paris’ tallest constructing and the one skyscraper within the metropolis. This stupendous Tower is located at 33 Ave. du Maine, within the fifteenth Arrondissement of Paris. The doorway is at Rue de l’Arrivée, whereas the closest metro cease is Montparnasse Bienvenue.
The Tour Montparnasse is called after the neighborhood it’s situated in. Within the seventeenth century, college students from the neighboring Latin Quarter preferred to satisfy on the prime of a small synthetic hill within the south of the town, the place sand and rubble had been piled up, to recite poems. Mockingly, the hill then took the title of Mount Parnassus, a legendary Greek mountain devoted to the god Apollo and his 9 Muses, protectors of the humanities and poetry.
The Montparnasse neighborhood was from 1900 and, particularly throughout the interwar interval, the center of Parisian inventive and mental life. After Apollinaire, Gauguin, Matisse, and the Douanier Rousseau, many international artists, principally Jews, went into exile in Paris: Modigliani, Zadkine, Soutine, Chagall, and lots of extra. They had been attracted by the inexpensive rents of housing and workshops.
The Montparnasse neighborhood can be house to the Montparnasse Cemetery, one of many most lovely cemeteries in Paris, the Observatoire de Paris, the Fondation Cartier pour l’Artwork Contemporain, and the Carrières des Capucins.
Tour Montparnasse Hours and Ticket Worth
From 1 October to 31 March, the Tower is open from 9.30 am to 10.30 pm, from Sunday to Thursday, and from 9.30 am to 11.00 pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and holidays.
From 1 April to 30 September, the Tower is open from 9.30 am to 11.30 pm daily.
Tour Montparnasse tickets value 15€ (adults), 11€ (college students and guests aged 12 to 17), and seven.50€ (children aged 4 to 11). It’s free to go to for youths beneath 4 years – Click on right here to ebook your tickets upfront
Entry to Tour Montparnasse is included in The Paris Go (now Go Metropolis Paris). There are additionally fascinating bundles combining a number of the prime Paris sights that make you save money and time:
Tour Montparnasse Inside
The Montparnasse Tower has 59 flooring above floor and 6 flooring underground. The flooring open to guests are flooring #56 and flooring #59.
Montparnasse Tower Obervation Deck
Put together for a dizzying ascent: the Tower’s lightning-fast elevator rises from the bottom flooring to the 56th flooring in simply 38 seconds! This elevate is among the quickest lifts in Europe at speeds reaching 60km/h.
Known as the Montparnasse Tower Commentary Deck, the 56th flooring permits guests to admire breathtaking views of Paris shielded from wind and rain. The Montparnasse Tower Commentary Deck is supplied with avant-garde interactive and audio-visual amenities to help in decoding the views of the town you see beneath. These embrace exhibitions, binoculars, interactive amenities, viewpoint tables, quizzes, and extra.
Additionally, you will discover a bar-restaurant, a café and a memento store on this flooring.
The Terrace
The Montparnasse Tower tickets additionally provide you with entry to the 59th flooring. That is really an outside roof terrace that, at 210 meters excessive, provides a panoramic 360-degree view of Paris.
This flooring is accessible by stairs from the 56th flooring, and it has telescopes and orientation tables to assist guests find the monuments and well-known buildings of Paris.
Attention-grabbing and Quirky Info In regards to the Montparnasse Tower, Paris
Along with its location and imposing structure, listed below are some fascinating Montparnasse Tower details.
1. Tour Montparnasse’s Predominant Figures
The Tour Montparnasse weighs 150,000 tons, has an oval form of 164 x 104 meters, and has six underground ranges and 59 flooring.
It has 70 m of basis, 25 lifts working at 6m/second, 40,000m2 of façade, 7,200 home windows, and 1306 stairs. The Montparnasse Tower receives 1,2 million guests per yr on roofs #56 and #59, whereas the remainder of the Tower is a prestigious deal with that welcomes round 5,000 staff day by day.
2. It took 11 Years to Approve the Development of the Montparnasse Tower
From the primary drawings to the start of the development, it took eleven years to approve the venture!
All started in 1959 when the French rail firm, SNCF, determined that the Montparnasse Station wanted to be renovated and moved to accommodate the rising inflow of passengers. A lot to Paris’ dismay, the Gare Montparnasse was moved to its present location, and a 59-story tower was designed on the location of the previous station to deal with Parisian workplace buildings.
The venture was strongly criticized due to the peak of the constructing. An issue started and led to slowdowns within the venture, led by the Minister of Tools Edgard Pisani, who obtained the assist of André Malraux, then Minister of Tradition beneath Common de Gaulle.
In 1969, Georges Pompidou, President of the Republic, needed to offer Paris with fashionable infrastructure and granted the development of an actual complicated with a Buying Middle. The development of this Paris skyscraper may then start.
In April 1970, the primary stone was laid, and French multinational VINCI constructed the Tower after the design of architects Eugène Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan, and Louis Hoym de Marien. VINCI can be identified for setting up the Centre Pompidou, the Channel Tunnel, and the Stade de France.
It took 4 years to finish the Tower, and was lastly inaugurated in 1973.
3. The Montparnasse Tower Was Strongly Criticized by Parisians
Similar to with the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Pyramid, Tour Montparnasse’s design and imposing measures had been strongly criticized by Parisians.
Whereas the Eiffel Tower and the Glass Pyramid finally grew to become the most well-liked landmarks within the metropolis and Parisians totally embraced the Eiffel Tower as the final word image of their metropolis, the resentment towards the Tour Montparnasse by no means went away, and it nonetheless isn’t preferred by Parisians.
The Parisians had been so sad that the town of Paris handed a legislation banning additional buildings over seven tales tall within the historic heart of Paris to forestall such a fiasco from occurring once more.
4. The Tour Montparnasse Was Voted the Second Ugliest Constructing within the World
In 2008, the journey web site named Digital Vacationer, relaxation in peace, organized a contest amongst its readers to decide on the World’s Ugliest Buildings, and the Montparnasse Tower was voted second!
Solely the Boston Metropolis Corridor, a Brutalist constructing in Boston, was voted uglier, an honor that we aren’t certain their cities are pleased with.
5. The Montparnasse Tower Gives the Finest View of Paris
Whereas all people agrees the Montparnasse Tower provides one of many greatest views of Paris, we are saying it merely provides the perfect! Whereas the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Sacré-Coeur, present an ideal view, you possibly can’t escape the large Montparnasse Tower within the distance. Mockingly, the Montparnasse Tower view is the perfect as a result of it’s the one vantage level within the metropolis the place you don’t see the Tour Montparnasse.
From 210 meters above floor, admire one of many greatest Eiffel Tower views, Montmartre, the Louvre, the Invalides, and even see past Paris.
In clear climate, the view extends as much as 40 kilometers from the Yvelines to Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly Airports and the Japanese suburbs of Val de Marne and Seine-et-Marne. From the Commentary Deck, one can usually see planes taking off and touchdown at Orly Airport!
6. The Montparnasse Tower Restaurant is the Highest in Europe
On flooring 56, guests may even discover the Montparnasse Tower restaurant, Le Ciel de Paris, which is the very best restaurant in Europe!
Le Ciel de Paris welcomes company daily till 11.30 pm and supplies positive eating with 360° vistas of the town and all its monuments.
Due to its unobstructed views of the Eiffel Tower, Le Ciel de Paris is among the most coveted locations to see the fireworks on the 14th of July (France’s Nationwide Day). E-book effectively upfront!
7. The Tour Montparnasse Was Paris’ Tallest Constructing in France for Practically 40 Years!
From its development in 1973 till 2011, the Tour Montparnasse (210 meters tall) was Paris’ tallest constructing and in addition the tallest constructing in France.
In 2011 nonetheless, the large Tour First was transformed, including to its top and surpassing the Montparnasse Tower because the tallest in France. Situated in La Défense enterprise district, simply outdoors Paris, the Tour First stands in the present day at 231 meters, simply 21 meters taller than Montparnasse Tower. This distinction was sufficient to land it the title of the tallest constructing in France.
8. The Tour Montparnasse Was Free-Scaled in 2015
In 2015 Alain Robert, also called “the French Spider-Man,” climbed the Montparnasse Tower with no harness or ropes in lower than an hour. Throughout his climb, he wore the Nepalese flag to deliver consciousness to human rights violations on this nation.
As you possibly can think about, the Paris police had been ready for Mr. Robert on the highest of the Tower with a crimson carpet, and he was arrested as quickly as he reached the highest.
9. It took 3 Years to Take away a Substance that Causes Most cancers from the Tower
In 2005, a examine concluded that the Montparnasse Tower contained 20 occasions the authorized restrict of asbestos materials, a substance thought of to be a carcinogen.
This resulted in some corporations who rented workplace house on the Tower leaving it.
Removing of the asbestos began within the yr 2009 and ended three years later. Surprisingly, the Tour Montparnasse continued to function usually throughout this time.
10. A Place of Quite a few Occasions
Throughout summer time in Paris, the Montparnasse Tower hosts quite a lot of occasions on the Commentary Deck. A few of the occasions within the Tower are yoga, train courses, and dwell musical performances. There may be additionally an outside bar, which provides a stunning likelihood to calm down together with your head within the clouds…
11. Dwelling to the Highest Skate Rink in Paris
Imagine it or not, however in winter, you possibly can skate on the Tower’s open terrace – the very best skating rink in Paris!
For the final 4 years, a 30m2 ice rink product of artificial materials was put in on the prime of the Montparnasse Tower at an altitude of 210m. The occasion welcome greater than 30,000 folks every year, each Parisians and vacationers from everywhere in the world, who may benefit from the joys of ice skating with unobstructed views of Paris
The very best ice rink in Paris was to return to the highest of the Montparnasse Tower for a fifth version in February-March 2023. Nevertheless, “causes past its management” prompted the Paris Montparnasse Observatory to cancel the occasion final minute. Let’s hope the Tower’s skate rink will likely be again in 2024!
What to Do Close to the Montparnasse Tower, Paris?
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