Ride the Fastest Lift in Europe to the 56th Floor
Your visit begins at street level in the Montparnasse district, directly above the Montparnasse–Bienvenüe Métro station. From the ground floor, an elevator carries you to the 56th floor in 38 seconds, reaching speeds of 22 km/h — the fastest elevator in Europe. The doors open onto an enclosed observation floor 200 metres above the ground, branded as Paris Montparnasse. Viewfinders and augmented reality screens help you pick out what you're looking at, and the space is heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, so the view is comfortable in any season. The same floor holds a café and the restaurant Ciel de Paris — "Sky of Paris."
Pick Out the Whole City, Then Watch a Plane Leave Orly
On a clear day the view from the observation deck stretches for 40 km (25 miles), and you can watch aircraft taking off from Orly Airport. The landmarks stack up in every direction: the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, Sacré-Cœur, Place de la Bastille, the Luxembourg Gardens and Palais du Luxembourg, Saint-Sulpice, Montparnasse Cemetery, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Sainte-Chapelle, Pont Alexandre III, the Arc de Triomphe, Trocadéro, La Défense and the Champ de Mars. It is a rare vantage point: the tower's guard rail, fitted with antennae, can be pneumatically lowered.
Climb to the Open-Air Roof for Sunset
Above the enclosed floor, the 59th-floor roof terrace is an open-air observation point more than 650 feet up — the highest in the city. It is positioned so that you look west toward the Eiffel Tower with the Champ de Mars in the foreground, which makes sunset the recommended time to be there: from the terrace you can watch the setting sun alongside the tower. Stay as the light goes down and the city arranges itself beneath you.
Know the Building You're Standing In
Tour Maine-Montparnasse was built between 1969 and 1973 on the site of the old Montparnasse station, designed by architects Eugène Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien and built by Campenon Bernard. Its 56 reinforced concrete pillars sink 70 m underground, and because the tower had to rise just above a Métro line, the Metro structures were protected by a reinforced concrete shield. The design predates the trend of giving every office a window: only the offices around the perimeter of each floor have them.
Parisians have long criticised the tower as out of place in the cityscape — the joke being that its observation deck has the best view in Paris because it is the only place from which the tower itself cannot be seen. Two years after completion, Paris banned buildings over seven storeys in the city centre. That history is part of what you're looking at from the top.
Make It Part of a Montparnasse Day
The tower stands in the Montparnasse area, about 2 miles (roughly 3 km) from the Eiffel Tower, and the view down onto Montparnasse Cemetery and the surrounding streets gives you a map for the rest of your afternoon. If you're planning a wider run at Paris's sights, note that all national museums and monuments are free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month, and that most museums and galleries close on either Monday or Tuesday — the Louvre on Tuesdays, the Orsay on Mondays. Sites with tight capacity, such as the Eiffel Tower, Sainte-Chapelle and the catacombs, reward arriving at least 30 minutes before opening. The Paris Museum Pass covers over 70 museums and monuments and lets you skip lengthy queues; it comes in 2-day, 4-day and 6-day versions and is sold at participating museums, tourist offices, FNAC branches and the main Métro and RER stations.
Set aside an afternoon that ends at sunset, ride the lift up, and let the city spread out below you — then start planning the rest of your Paris days around what you see from the top.