If the queues at the Eiffel Tower are just too much for you and your time is limited, consider a trip up the Montparnasse Tower. This is an office building with an observation and shopping area on the 56th floor, where the elevators stop, and an open viewing area on the roof. Arguably the view is better than from the Eiffel Tower: you are not so high up so things are more visible, and you can see the Eiffel Tower!

Tour Maine-Montparnasse , also commonly named Tour Montparnasse, is a 210-metre office skyscraper in the Montparnasse area of Paris, France. Constructed from 1969 to 1973, it was the tallest skyscraper in France until 2011, when it was surpassed by the 231-metre Tour First in the La Défense business district west of Paris's city limits. It remains the tallest building in Paris proper and the fourth tallest in France, behind the Link, Tour First and Tour Hekla. As of February 2026, it is the 59th-tallest building in Europe. The tower was designed by architects Eugène Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan, and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien and built by Campenon Bernard. On 21 September 2017, Nouvelle AOM won a competition to redesign the building's façade. The commercial center portion will be redesigned by Renzo Piano.