Top 10 Paris viewpoints

Paris is a beautiful city when you are strolling around its streets, but it is even more impressive when you can view Paris from above: The top 10 Paris viewpoints are within your reach! Find these places to become an expert at the number 1 Paris activity: people watching.

The first one that usually comes to mind is the Eiffel tower, but here are a few different spots from where you will enjoy the greatest views of the city – and they will be less crowded.

If you are on the Left Bank of Paris, there is a way for you to actually enjoy a great sight of the city without having to queue to go up the Eiffel tower, and it will even allow you to have our Iron lady as a part of the panorama: You can just climb up the Montparnasse tower!

Definitely within the top Paris viewpoint, the tower itself is pretty ugly, so as a Parisian, I am telling you, it is a good thing you won’t be able to see it when you are up there. The price of a ticket is around 13,5€ for an adult (cheaper for younger people), and you can easily get there with the metro (Station: Montparnasse Bienvenue)

Cathedral of Notre-Dame

If you are visiting Notre Dame, the cathedral, you may also climb up the tower, and you will have an unequalled panorama of the center of Paris, as it is right in the middle and close to everything you want to see, but also one of the oldest views of this sort. Also consider this to be one of the best places for people watching in Paris! But the Right bank also has some wonderful panoramas over the city of Paris!

The view from the Sacré Cœur and the stairs where you will be able to sit to enjoy it!

The most famous within the top 10 Paris viewpoints must be that hill with the church on top: Montmartre hill, with the Sacré Cœur in your back (yet again, you can’t see it!). From that place, you have a view over the South of Paris, and you can see most of the best landmarks in Paris. It is easily accessible by the metro (Line 2: Anvers and Line 12: Abbesses, then the Funicular or the stairs!)

The National Center for Art and Culture, also known as the « Centre Pompidou »

Also, if you are fond of art, and especially of modern and contemporary art, you can kill two birds with one stone by visiting the Centre Pompidou (also called « Beaubourg ») and seeing the greatest collection of modern art in France (and one of the best in the world) while enjoying a great panorama from the top of the building, overlooking Paris and the center of the city. It is easily accessible by the Metro as well! (Metro Station: Rambuteau line 11, Châtelet line 1, 4, 7, 11 and 14 as well as RER A and B)

But if you would rather be original and see the city as if you were really flying, then you can go to the Parc André Citroen, and get into the hot-air balloon that is in the air just over the park, and enjoy a great view of the city as well as an amazing experience. It is in the 15th district (Metro Station: Javel line 10 and Balard line 8), and it only costs 11€ per adult (less for children), but watch out for the weather!

Now the choice is yours and you get to pick which place suits your desires the best. But whichever one you choose, do not forget you are looking over the most beautiful city in the world and you have just found one of the best things to do.