Views of Paris from Tour Montparnasse

Today we went on a rather uninspiring walk through parts of Saint Germain and Montparnasse.  A lot of the Paris City Walks cards point out local shops and businesses as "attractions".  Usually we pop in and see what the fuss is about, especially if it's a bakery or patisserie.  But...for several weeks in August, many stores have their "fermeture annuelle" (annual closure) for vacation.  So most of Paris seems to be closed for the moment.  (We are lucky that on our street, Rue Montorgueil, most of the bakeries, fromageries, produce stands, and grocery stores remain open.)  Anyway, the fermetures annuelles are making some of our walks pretty boring!

However, all the tourist attractions are up and running.  Our walk ended at the Tour Montparnasse, the 59-floor skyscraper near the Montparnasse train station.

"Visite Panoramique"...okay, why not?

The ear-popping elevator ride took us first to the 56th floor to the indoor observation area.  From that height, the Montparnasse cemetery looks like a small city.

When viewing it from above, you can really appreciate the enormous size of the Louvre museum.  If you have really good eyes, you can make out Sacré-Coeur in the upper left corner of the photo, but the white church really disappears among the other white buildings so it can be hard to see.

The Hôtel des Invalides is pretty easy to make out from up here -- the shiny gold dome is unmistakable.

We then walked up a few flights to the outdoor deck on the 59th floor, where you can get a great 360-degree panoramic view of the whole city.

The mismatched towers make the church of Saint-Sulpice easy to spot.  In the upper left is the Église Saint Eustache (near our apartment).  In the upper right are the highly visible red, white, and blue colors of the Pompidou Center.

The Jardin du Luxembourg sticks out like a green oasis amidst all the beige and gray buildings.  Just behind it and to the left you can see Notre Dame.

Last but not least is the Eiffel Tower.  Behind it is La Défense, the business district.  The green stretch in front of the tower is the Champs de Mars, leading to the École Militaire.