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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2012 15:43:34 GMT
I don't often make reports on tourist sites in Paris since visitors can see Paris with fresher eyes, and I think it is more suitable for them to show what they have seen. As for the Tour Montparnasse, it is not really a prime tourist site by European standards since it only receives 760,000 visitors a year and it ranks 15th in Parisian tourist attractions that require payment. The majority of tourists visiting the tower are Chinese. Anyway, it was built from 1969 to 1972 and it was the tallest building in Europe for 20 years at 210 meters. Now it ranks 17th, and even the Tour First in La Défense is taller, pending the construction of the Russian financed Hermitage Plaza twin towers which are due in La Défense in 2016. They will be 323 meters high, voluntarily one meter less than the Eiffel Tower. Upon completion, Hermitage Plaza will be the tallest office building in Europe. Anyway, Parisians have never loved the Tour Montparnasse, nor has anybody else. Not only is it not very pretty, but it is an architectural insult in the heart of Paris. Thank you, Georges Pompidou. Frankly, over the years my eyes have just filtered it out or else I use it as a landmark to find Montparnasse, which I probably could have found anyway. I have worked in the building twice in my life. Companies come and go, but among the current occupants are the Paris offices of Al-Jazeera, the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the teachers health insurance company, which occupies 8 floors and is the principal co-owner of the building, AXA, Morgan Stanley -- all of the usual suspects for this kind of building. I had not been inside for about 10 years, but I suddenly decided to buy my ticket and spend 38 seconds in the lift to get to the 56th floor. Then you walk up to the 59th if you want to stand on the roof. You can actually see the majority of the monuments of Paris if you know where to look (of course there are all of the orientation signs to help people know what they are seeing). Most people want to see the Eiffel Tower first. Not a problem to find. Yes, I was playing with my camera settings since the weather was crummy. the Ecole Militaire and the Champ de Mars the Senate the Luxembourg gardens the Arc de Triomphe the Louvre Place de la Concorde
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2012 15:51:59 GMT
Here's where we are. It is actually quite well protected from wind and rain but with open slots in the glass so that people can use their cameras properly. Bibliothèque François Mitterrand Chinatown in the 13th arrondissement the Opera the Grand Palais and the Pont Alexandre III Saint Eustache at Les Halles the Pompidou Center Sacré Coeur the Panthéon Notre Dame de Paris Saint Sulpice Les Invalides La Défense (the taller Tour First is the jagged one on the right)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2012 15:56:28 GMT
I just noticed not only the agricultural fields beyond Sacré Coeur but also the Stade de France hiding directly behind it.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2012 16:08:49 GMT
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Jun 10, 2012 16:50:37 GMT
I liked the Sacré Couer photo as well. It's interesting to see in the background how the urban agglomeration ends abruptly and yields to agricultural countryside. Any idea where that hill is way off in the distance in the top of the photo?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2012 16:59:39 GMT
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Post by Lynn B on Jun 11, 2012 5:58:16 GMT
Looks more like it is on a straight line Sacre Coeur, Stade de france and past Le Bourget. That is some magnification you are getting there, when the Stade is as far again as Sacre Coeur. So now Nick is jealous and wants to know which Panasonic it is.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2012 7:28:28 GMT
It's the DMC-TZ25. I dropped it down a flight of stairs once, but it still works.
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Post by auntieannie on Jun 11, 2012 10:18:56 GMT
Thank you, K2! You may not like the Tour Montparnasse, but the view... the view!
I went up there in 1994 I think...(unless it was 1986) absolutely fantastic that you can see the countryside from there. I remember a map of Paris from the revolution time and how little it has changed since, apart from la defense and stuff like the tour montparnasse and les halles...
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Post by mossie on Jun 11, 2012 18:32:25 GMT
I snapped this graffiti the last time I got out on the roof a few years ago.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 11, 2012 19:17:26 GMT
This is a hugely enjoyable thread! It's great being able to mentally link these pictures to the various wonderful threads about Paris you & others have posted. I think the various architects and designers of the city throughout history would be gratified to see that things they meant to be big and imposing still are, despite modern skyscrapers and expansion.
And hey -- the crummy weather gave a nice light and timeless feel to the pictures!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2012 19:32:35 GMT
I would like to point out another detail of the Sacré Coeur pictures -- look how the steps in front of it are totally covered by people sitting there. When I first arrived in Paris, I spent an amazing number of evenings on the steps with friends, with a baguette, some cheap pâté de campagne and an even cheaper bottle of wine. I kind of miss not knowing anybody who would like to do that again.
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Post by htmb on Jun 11, 2012 20:42:27 GMT
Kerouac, I did that very much by accident (and minus the cheap wine and eats) a couple of years ago when my friend asked me to visit Sacre Coeur with her. I was so overwhelmed by the crowd as we started to enter the basilica that I exited and found a place to sit with my back up against the building. From my perch I not only looked out over the streets of Paris, but I "people watched" which, at the time was, even more fascinating than the view. What an incredible assortment of people!
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Post by lugg on Jun 12, 2012 19:18:21 GMT
I so enjoyed seeing these photos , I especially love the effects on the people photographed from aloft (the matchstick figures )which in a strange way reminded me of Lowry paintings, even though the setting is so different.
Sitting drinking wine and eating pate/bread sounds so good.
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Post by RobC on Jun 13, 2012 21:37:06 GMT
Wonderful pics K2!
But I disagree... I find the newness, the starkness and the blackness of the tower an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the city. It's almost an exclamation point! I dislike both the Pompidou Centre and Pei's Pyramid much more! ;^)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2012 19:20:07 GMT
I was at the Trocadéro at lunch time today, so I thought it might be interesting to point my camera at the top of the Tour Montparnasse from there. Another interesting view was to see the domes of the Pantheon and the Invalides right next to each other.
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Post by lola on Jun 15, 2012 0:58:27 GMT
Beautifully done, K.
I'd sit on the Sacre Coeur steps with you, lugg, and some cheap wine.
Do you know what flag that is over the Grand Palais.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2012 4:50:16 GMT
Aha, that is the flag of Daniel Buren for his Monumenta project!
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Post by lola on Jun 15, 2012 17:07:47 GMT
(*looked it up real quick*)
There seem to be still a few days to walk under those colors, but I guess I won't make it over in time. Beautiful.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2012 17:10:19 GMT
I posted the flag this morning on the flag thread in the photo bank.
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Post by jacob on Jun 15, 2012 19:12:16 GMT
A talented artist. A relaxed flag. j'apprecie ce site internet beaucoup. Shalom '
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Post by bjd on Jun 24, 2012 14:47:11 GMT
Finally catching up with some of these threads.
I have never been up on the Montparnasse Tower (the Eiffel Tower either in fact), but these photos make me realize what an urban planning problem Paris must be.
Leaving it as it was makes the city feel like a museum fit only for tourism. But adding contemporary architecture that clashes so much with the rest doesn't work either. I know Pompidou was a fan of modern architecture, but Beaubourg is such an ugly building and will need endless maintenance and renovation. I really like Pei's pyramid though. I find it fits well.
Sitting with your back to Sacré Coeur Church gives a better view in my opinion.
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ssander
member
Offline
At the Belleville Arts Open Doors in Paris in 2007
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Post by ssander on Jul 7, 2012 23:11:04 GMT
Great pix...We've never been to the top, but I plan on it next trip -- soon, I hope.
SS
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 20:40:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 21:02:47 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2015 5:46:30 GMT
Anyway, it was an interesting way to spend an hour.
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Post by bjd on Jan 30, 2015 8:08:57 GMT
I enjoyed going through this thread again. The thought crossed my mind that to have trees around you in Paris you have to be dead. Paris is so built up it definitely lacks a few large parks in the centre.
What is that building with a large glassed-in hole in the middle? (#5 in reply 25)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2015 11:00:01 GMT
That's a Ricardo Bofill housing project, Place de Catalogne.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 30, 2015 13:16:34 GMT
By housing project, do you mean public or social housing, or a private condominium? (Bofill has done several social housing projects, but that would be very expensive real estate).
I only wish all we had to endure was barren-looking trees... Though we just got the tail end of the Boston storm; there isn't a lot of snow.
I wouldn't mind the baguette, pâté and bottle of pinard on the steps... Not "la Villageoise", though. Does that stuff still exist?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2015 13:39:10 GMT
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