Part of this is because the city limits for Paris are quite small, while the “real” city is the urban area of 10 million - so people don't consider it really in Paris even though Canary Wharf is definitely in London.
It is a nice-looking and decently sized skyline, though it being away from central Paris and lacking residential high-rises makes it smaller than it could be. Also unlike London, Paris has less residential clusters of tall buildings. They recently installed the 37 m height limit in the city proper so any new tall buildings will have to be built in the metro area.
When I lived in North America; downtown was often the main center which had more available in terms of stores and restaurants, while outer areas of a city were icnreasingly more residential with less and less options. Their was generally significant reason to head downtown vs other areas.
Paris in general is so relatively dense, with multi-story apartments with business at ground level, that their is no real true "center", even fairly far outside the core city this still holds at least somewhat true. This extremely even spread is one of the main reasons that a place like La Defense gets little attention; There's not actually that much significant about it to require heading there unless you work their. I've only ever been a handful of times.
that their is no real true "center"
By city center, for a city like Paris, we think differently from what is understood in the US. We follow the limits of the former fortifications surrounding Paris (Paris intra muros vs the actual metropolitan area), as well as the historical core neighbourhoods that are, quite literally, at the center of the city. It's not based on what type of buildings one may find.
Truth. I always point to LA which has tall buildings and a skyline downtown but no one goes downtown and no one would recommend anyone visiting to stay in downtown LA. People usually stay with their neighborhoods to shop or party. In that sense there is no center of LA.
There is a city center in Paris, roughly it's the six first arrondissements. You can't compare it to the center of a city the size of New York though. If you have to scale it to large cities, Paris itself is the city center, and the suburbs are the residential neighbourhoods.
Isn’t part of that due to the fact that there’s a lot of old limestone quarries underground that could collapse of too much weight placed on them so they have to be careful about how much weight a building is?
It’s 12/13 millions nowadays
The « real » city is intra-muros. Point barre.
The administration is much different, Paris vs London. Île de France vs Metropolitan London have quite different layers of government.
London's city limits were changed in 1965 (with minor tweaks) since to include most, but not all of the urban area of Greater London, to considerable upset among those who found themselves changing counties. Ask a person from Romford what county they live in and many will say "Essex".
La Defense is in Hauts-de-Seine, department number 92 (featured on postcodes and licence plates). Paris itself is 75.
If I remember correctly it was even in another zone concerning the metro tickets
It is, it's Zone 3, which means that if you take the RER, you'll have to take a special ticket, the metro ticket won't work, it's supposed to work only in zones 1 and 2. However, as an exception, if you use the metro to go there (it's the last stop of Line 1 to the west), then a metro ticket works.
Stupid, but that's how it is
It’s not really an exception, the rule is that metro tickets work on the metro, no exceptions. The fact that the metro in this case goes out into Zone 3 and arrives at an RER station with the same name that is not subject to the metro rule… that’s mildly infuriating to everyone except the people handing out fines for misunderstanding the system.
No exception, except the extension of line 14 to Orly airport, a couple of days ago.
Metro tickets (T+) are valid on most metros, most buses, most trams, and all trains within zone 1.
I added the "most" in front of metro, bus and tram because there are notable exceptions. Metro 14 to Orly airport is not covered by a T+ ticket. Direct buses to either airport are not covered by a T+ ticket and two tram lines (11 and 13) are not covered by T+ tickets.
Yes, it's stupid.
Why is that stupid? It makes sense, you’re entering to go somewhere far from the center of where the business runs to one of their farther areas? Of course you’d pay the price normally.
Same zone if you are on metro but different if you're on RER (zone 3, Paris is zone 1). Same place but differents zones totally logical shit :D
Not exactly. There is only zone if you use only metro (subway)
But true if you consider RER (regional trains).
And none of these skyscrapers is particularly tall, even to European standards.
i’ve never heard anyone make that claim
Zoning regulations in Paris limit the height of buildings.
Today the limit is about 6-7 stories in most areas of central Paris.
More accurately, regulation mandates 24/7 fire warden for building of 8 stories and more. Couple with labor regulation, that's a very expensive 9th floor. The usual workaround for office space is to have a 8th floor with a mezzanine. That's a better disincentive than zoning since you can apply for an exemption. The rational is to protect expensive real estate value (NIMBY vote) and why office space is pushed outside of the center (La Defense, Velizy, Les Ulis, Noisy le Grand...)
Well now you have
That and the fact that the pictures showed as argument are either not in paris, or relatively mid sized buildings that are never considered sky scrapers
Ive never heard anyone say that, definitely not in a way to talk down Paris. But as someone else said, Paris doesnt completely advertise La Defense to begin with. Which is fine because thats not why people go to Paris.
That aside, i like really Paris’ tower designs, they’re unique, minus that one random tall black building that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Hey! Respect tower Montparnasse! I've studied there!
Fuck la tour Montparnasse. It's hideous. You know it, I know it.
I mean, I know it, but let my bias nostalgia be 😭
But to be fair, it's only hideous from above, when you're in the streets, it doesn't have the same effect. Been there 3 years, and it never bothered me.
La tour Montparnasse infernale
Best view of Paris because you can't see la tour Montparnasse front there
Its modification is the only thing that I was looking forward to regarding the preparations for the Olympic games and of course it had to be postponed.
I found it beautifull
It's helping navigate when no battery
Yeah, but that means you were on the inside looking out! 😉
The running joke about the Tour Montparnasse is
The best thing about the building is the view from it, because then you don’t have to see the damn thing
Ironically attributed to a late 19th century writer (Maupassant) regarding the Eiffel Tower.
Maupassant said this about the Eiffel Tower. Exactly quote was that he liked to go on the tower because it was the only place in Paris where he couldn’t see it.
I often made that claim because it's true.
The PLU forbidden skyscrapper in Paris after the creation of the Tour Montparnnass. The tower was judged so ugly that it was decided that we'll never had any other building like that in Paris. That why we created La Défense and build all the skycrapper in Nanterre.
There is 3 exceptions to, the Tour Duo and the futur Tour Triangle (the creations of this buildings in the limit of Paris are outrageous but that is beside the point)
Beside that there is no tall building in the limit of Paris and we have a PLU to forbid it.
Fun fact: there's actually a giant thumb sculpture in the area.
Heard a Parisian guy referring to it as the "middlefinger of Paris."
As he should
I call it the eye of Sauron
i like really Paris’ tower designs, they’re unique, minus that one random tall black building that sticks out like a sore thumb.
I'm guessing it's Montparnasse you're talking about but at first I thought you were talking about the Eiffel Tower lmao
No lol Montparnasse. I’ve been to Paris and honestly don’t remember ever seeing it. But the pictures, my goodness
La tour Montparnasse.
This tower was built to create at least one place in paris from where you don't see the tour Montparnasse
There's a thumb in La défense
I was talking about Montparnasse
I'm glad paris is that way cause i went to london and it's weird af. Like you see an historical building next to huge modern buildings, it's weird. I guess it's like if you went to grece for the ruines, but you have to drive hours to each sites, it's taking you out of the bubble.
Have you visited Tokyo? :]
Paris doesn’t advertise La Defense because La Defense is in Puteaux, not Paris. It’s a different city with a different mayor..
Thank you for the semantics.
Who are you quoting?
Is it true that, while they do have skyscrapers, they're purposely not in the city center?
Absolutely true. La Defense is just west of the City of Paris. It’s still close to being in the center of metro Paris though.
Uhh.. no it isn’t… it’s at the literal end of the metro. Like La Defense is the last stop on line 1.
Yeah but it's close enough to the centre to be at the intersection of multiple important lines.
It's not as close to the center and as pivotal as chatelet, but close enough to be accessible from most of Paris in less than 30 mins
La Défense isn't far from the city center! The real/proper City of Paris is rather small. Just like LA (actually a good comparison City of LA/LA county/metro).
It even has its own, modernistic Arc de Triomphe/Grande Arche Together with Frankfurt and London (Canary Wharf) it was basically the only European city with a significant skyline made up of skyscrapers until the 00's. Actually beating both in numbers. But Frankfurt has/had taller skyscrapers. None is taller than then the Eifel Tower.
Most of Europe's largest building where La Défense and Frankfurt. Before Moscow and London (or Warsaw) started building on a large scale. It's walkable like Manhattan. Many of the buildings are covered behind each other. So it's actually even bigger than it looks from many perspectives. They first had a hight limitation of 100m/~330ft and then 150/~490ft.
It's Europe's largest business district and hosts around 40 buildings over 100m/330ft.
Beautiful pic, I never saw it in this perspective
Its not in Paris… Fake news…
France is pretty strict when it comes to city cohésive looks if it makes sense. I'm from a city right next to Versailles (you can actually see the palace from my family's apartment) and theres so many rules we have to follow to make sure the cities stay cohesive. In my case, buildings over 3 stories tall are forbidden , so is choosing the actual shade of your house, roof etc.
I personally love La Tour Montparnasse, ever since I was a kid playing Sim City 3000 and it was available as a landmark.
same. was disappointed to find out it's undergoing a reclad. made a point to go to the top of this one on my visit in 2019 instead of eiffel
Instead of tearing that monster down!
You go up there so you can not see it anymore.
It’s being reclasd cos it’s practically made of asbestos
You should watch this great movie "La tour Montparnasse infernale"
tbh, as a "big parisian", I've never seen anyone from the parisian metropolitan area say they like La Tour Montparnasse, for majority it's just the tower that destroyed the parisian landscap/skyline
It probably has the most famous tall building in the world.
Paris has a love affair with their old world architecture. I totally understand it but it definitely makes any celebrated skyscrapers there something of a rarity.
They're not even that old either lol, but i guess the germans can keep their medieval houses and we have our modern greco roman architecture which kinda fits. Idk how medieval buildings would've worked today.
They won’t really but I do admire people who keep old buildings alive. It’s physical history. After awhile if everything gets knocked down and built up, the entire world looks the same. Go to Paris if you want to see the Eiffel Tower, world class artwork, castles and ancient areas bustling with culture. Come to mine if you want to see a dollar general and a trump2024 bumper sticker
Eiffel Tower is almost 1000 ft. La Defense fits Paris. It reminds me of Canary Wharf in London
I love it. people often us as Paris as reason DC should not have skyscrapers but I'm always like "dummy, Paris does have skyscrapers"
So does metro Washington DC. Especially in Northern Virginia.
well... highrises perhaps
Those skyscrapers are not in Paris, they’re in Puteaux
It has that one ugly black tower
It may be ugly and yes Parisians complain about everything just like New Yorkers. That’s just life in the big city but the views from above are beautiful and you see the whole Eiffel Tower and the city all over. Also hardly ever having huge lines or tourists.
Tour Montparnasse isn’t that bad. But if you really want to see a cluster of absolutely ugly high rise buildings within the Paris city limits, go to « Front de Seine ». There are several 1970’s era « futuristic » buildings that vie with each other for the Ugly Prize.
That first shot looks pretty nice. As an American whose never been admittedly I did not think there were any tall buildings.
I posted a similar picture on cityporn showing La Defense, and some people got super pissy about what exactly is Paris and what is not.
Tbf, Paris is a really small city, la défense is not inside Paris but inside 3 other cities (Courbevoie, Puteaux and Nanterre).
Those are technically not in Paris, but in La Defense (which is a business district located at the junction of four communes - that is, towns or small cities), near Paris (a few Km to the west of Paris).
However, there are some high buildings in Paris. The Montparnasse Tower is one of the most famous, but you also have high buildings in the peripheral Arrondissements (districts), like in the 13th (south Paris, near metro Olympiades), or in the 18th/ 19th, between Place de la bataille de Stalingrad and Porte de La Villette. There are also some other buidlings scheduled, like near Porte de Versailles, with the Triangle Tower.
Yes, I think I’m missing a few clusters but there’s three other images in my post with high-rises in Paris proper
Ah, sorry, I was commenting on the first photo, didn't see the others.
2nd Photo, I'm not sure, could be the Olympiades.
3rd Photo, you can clearly see the Montparnasse Tower.
4th Photo, that's the 15th district, along the Seine River.
Who said that ? Isn't there like this one biggass building that Paris is known for around the world ? You know the one shaped like an "A" ?
I do not see that skyline as a part of Paris though. That whole metro area is composed of a lot of smaller cities, which really are cities on their own with a city center and everything else a small city needs.
Paris has three skyscrapers inside the city limits though. Plus a copy of Tokyo Tower.
Ugly troll spotted. Copy of Tokyo Tower, tssk... (also, they differ in architecture, but I know that you know that too).
I’ll have you bet his mother considers him quite attractive
The only "skyscraper" there that's ever photographed is the Eiffel Tower. People probably think Paris doesn't even have any buildings.
It's worth noting only 1 (or 2 now) skyscrapers are actually in the city limits. But anybody that's actually been to Paris or seen real photos beyond the few famous buildings is aware.
4 ? Montparnasse, Tribunal de Paris and the two Tours Duo. More to come, I believe.
Paris is one of those cities that doesn’t need a skyline or skyscrapers with the exception of the Eiffel Tower. And nobody has complained about it saying “Paris doesn’t have any tall buildings”
This is "la Défense" and it's actually outside Paris. There's only a handful skyscrappers inside Paris, the tallest is the famous "Tour Montparnasse", in front of the railway station with the same name
Except there are also Paris Court house tower and Duo tower that are 150m+/500ft+ skyscrapers inside the city limits. As well as Triangle tower which is u/c.
So writting that Montparnasse tower is the only one is also wrong even when excluding everything outside the city limits.
C'est quoi ces mesures avec des unités inventées au temps où les rois mariaient leurs cousines? J'ai corrigé mon post, à ton tour maintenant
Technically… la défense is in Nanterre / Courbevoie, not Paris itself
Yes! Fake news from OP…
Isn’t it Puteaux?
Yes it’s Puteaux
« Isn’t it Puteaux? » It’s actually accross those 3 cities. Bottom of la defense is located in courbevoie. Top part is nanterre
It's all three.
What people see as Paris is the center most district which is the oldest part with haussmanian architecture. While the outermost districts are all modern buildings. Go to La Défense.
Well to talk about cities I went, New York City or Bangkok really make Paris look really small and without skyscrapers
Paris only has one skyscraper, Tour Montparnasse, that's a fact, cause there's a pretty restrictive height limit for buildings in Paris
La défense is way outside Paris, it sits in the middle of a whole lot of nothing it's actually funny to look at from the outside
and fun fact, Paris is one of the densiest cities in the world, despite having a lot less tall buildings than other cities on that list
now there are tall buildings as you are showing, but they're not skyscrapers, and there's not particularly taller than buildings you would fine in basically any somewhat big city, however they stand out quite a bit because the other buildings in Paris aren't tall
La défense ain't Paris fam. You showing picture of suburbs my G
True! And OP is still defending La Défense is Paris.
America is a sick country.
I've literally never been to America. Also you've made like 50 comments on this post whereas one would've done just fine.
Paris has a mean skyline IMO (@Arthurweidmann on IG)
Picture 1 : La Défense (technically not Paris - it's spread on Puteaux, Nanterre, and other suburbs).
Picture 2 : 13th district, towers in the Choisy/Tolbiac area (Paris)
Picture 3 : View from the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt, the vaguely Simon stalenhag-esque Accor tower in Issy-les-Moulineaux (not Paris), with the Montparnasse tower in the back (Paris)
Picture 4 : Front de Seine / Beaugrenelle (Paris)
La Défense is not part of Paris. It is in another city(Puteaux and Courbevoie)
Thank you.
Stop fake news OP
I’m French and have been to Paris several times. But when I crossed La Défense a few years ago, I was blown away when I realised there were some many tall buildings there
La defence is not Paris.
Heh I see my office
laughs in La Défense
Well, maybe because those tall buildings are, in fact, not in Paris ?
The first pic isn't Paris in the background, it's La Defense, which is ~3 km away
It’s called La Défense you uncultured swine. It’s not in Paris.
We do have la tour Montparnasse but it’s ugly. It does have the best view of the city, up there you can’t see the tower.
This is La Défense this is not Paris proper. It's outside of Paris.
Paris has 2 tall buildings that are the Eiffel tower and the Montparnasse tower.
What I saw in Paris was an intensely dense population more than half of whom are living second level, or more, above ground. This makes their wonderful mass transit possible and necessary. Outside the circumferential highway I would distinguish as Greater Paris or what is also called “named metropolitan area.”
Yay, I love the Front de Seine's brutalism. Now if we could demolish the Tour Monparnasse...
At the same time Paris never bragged about having tall buildings.
In fact, french people regret building the few skyscraper they have.
We've got some, and they are all awful
those don’t really look that tall
Isn't the Defense mostly in the 92
It's not Paris but one of its suburb "La Défense".
Actually we dont rly want tall buildings here
It's not Paris but La Defense (on the first pic)
It’s only the angle !
In my opinion, although they do exist, historical significance of certain parts of the city makes it hard to build anything new in the historic city centre, or, alternatively make the new high rise areas the "new city centre". Its a bit petty to pin this to Paris when this phenomenon is also apparent in many European cities, Berlin amd Amsterdam are two excellent examples. The fact is, part of the reason Paris, and few other European cities alike, are wide and massive instead of dense, is exactly that. Without rising higher, those cities will continue to expend sideways instead of upward, and while so far efficient public transport systems were enough to make it work, many cities across Europe understand amd accept that, and are rising higher. If you ever met a Parisian, you probably know they value their heritage more, and I don't believe they will allow for higher buildings, or for alternative center for the city. France has in total less than 30 skyscrapers, which wouldn't be enough for the top 50 cities with most skyscrapers.
Paris has an odd urbanism history. The city used to have large fortifications built around it in the 1840s, and building was contained in it until the 1910s when it was tore down. This made Paris a very dense city even outside of the historical middle ages fortified centre, compared with cities like London who spread out more in the 19th century, and like many German cities that had part of the cities destroyed in the second world war. That means that there is not much space for new construction in the centre of Paris, and new projects like the Montparnasse tower were built on the site of a demolished train station, or were built where construction was not possible before, like on the banks of the seine. That is also why administratively, Paris does not include its suburbs outside of where the wall was, unlike other european cities
La Défense is not in the city of Paris it is in Puteaux and Nanterre
That’s not Paris ;)
Of course we don't have any tall buildings since we didn't get bombed like others.
La Tour Montparnasse is in Paris I think
Tall buildings would deface Paris. Keeping them on the outskirts of the town is the way to go.
It's Courbevoie, especially the La Défense area. You're welcome :D (it's not Paris)
La Defense isn't Paris. It's actually between the cities of Puteaux, Courbevoie, Nanterre and La Garenne-Colombes. Paris doesn't have skyscrapers (except for that ugly Montparnasse tower), La Défense does.
La Défense is not in Paris
what? paris has ALL the tall buildings lol.
This is technically not Paris. The only tall building is La Tour Montparnasse.
How obscure and controversial can the most visited city in the world be ? For real ?
There's nothing hidden about Paris.
Never heard that. The only thing remotely close to that I've heard was about skyscrapers specifically, not tall buildings (because that doesn't make sense, any building is tall). And also, it wasn't "doesn't have" but "has a lot fewer that other similar cities like New York or London".
Well technically La Défense is not in Paris.
This business district is called "La Defense" and spread on 4 cities (none of them is Paris) : Courbevoie, Puteaux, Nanterre et la Garenne-Colombes.
Then, there is something called "Grand Paris" (Big Paris) which include Paris and 130 smaller cities, but "Grand Paris" is not Paris.
In theory that isnt Paris city
La Défense isn’t in Paris
Real feench answer: None of these are in paris. They are in puteaux, Courbevoie and Nanterre. Paris is inside the ring road peripherique and only montparnasse and eiffel tower are tall there.
Technically, the defense is not in Paris. On the other hand, Montparnasse... It's a building in Paris.
That's Puteaux and Courbevoie, not Paris
Paris only have 2 tall building, the Montparnasse Tower and the Eiffel Tower.
You're showing La Defense, which is a district who's not in Paris.
That’s not Paris. That’s La Défense.
that is not paris proper the only tall building is the Montparnasse tower ( or the eiffel )
most of the skyscrapers are in the business quarter la défense, which isn't a part of paris
It’s outside of Paris
It’s forbidden to build higher than the Eiffel Tower
"Paris is beautiful and romantic"
That’s La Défense, it’s not Paris
people in the comments asking who ever said that but as a French person myself the tall building are SO rarely shown that i used to believe it didn't have any until i went and saw them myself a few months ago
It doesn't. What you're seeing are the cities surrounding Paris. Those skyscrapers are meanly in Paris's Suburbs.
They had the good sense to place their tall buildings - with just about the ONLY exception being the Tour Montparnasse - at La Defense.
If you want to see great example of why this made sense take a look at St Pauls Cathedral in London - you can hardly make it out compared with 30 years ago!
"Paris doesn't have tall buildings"
Shows photos of the tall buildings of La Défense, in Nanterre, not Paris.
I used to live 5 minutes on foot to it.
None of these are within Paris limits. This is La Defense, in the north west of Paris and is splitted under the cities of Puteaux, Nanteres and Courbevoie.
This place used to be an industrial area, really flat and was digged a lot when Paris needed limestone to construct the Haussmannien buildings.
From what I know, the only big skycraper in Paris is the Montparnasse tower, is ugly as hell, and can't be dismantled mostly because it was constructed during the asbestos period, and it contains quite a lot of it and must be to expansive to take care of it properly.
Well it doesn't... This isn't in Paris... Besides the hideous tour de Montparnasse there isn't any tall buildings
These buildings are not in the city of Paris tho
Well this picture you shared illustrates even how true that statement is. The tall buildings in the pic are all in La Défense (a business district and suburb area of Paris). Paris postcodes start with 75. This is a 92 surburb area. 99% of buildings in Paris are 6/7 floors or less.
Tbf that's not part of Paris sorry
- That's not Paris per se. That's not Paris at all indeed
Did you cut off the end of the sentence on purpose? It's "Paris does not have any buildings taller than the Eiffel Tower". And apparently, it's a myth that there is a rule against it, it's just that no one will do it. Also, the neighborhood of La Defense is not Paris, the postal code starts with 92, Paris is 75001 to 75020.
Source: Expat living IN Paris for 12 years total.
So as to NOT block the view of the Eiffel Tower.
Yea in the US felt like a total moron when I first saw these angles of Paris. Moscow same deal ALWAYS see red square.
Indeed, most of those tall buildings including the skyscrapers are not in the area of paris
Thats not Paris, Thats La Défense. Not part of Paris
Technically, La Defense isn't in Paris.
How to explain in English (I'm French and live near Paris), each city has a Postal Code with five number (00000). The first two number are for the "département" and the 3 last is for the city, but with 3 major exception : Paris, Lyon and Marseille which have they own 2 first number and the last 3 number are for the "arrondissement" ("Arrondissement" are kind of neighborhood)
So in case of Paris, the two first number for the Postal Code are 75.For La Defense it's 92 (département des Haut-de-Seine), and it's on 3 city (Nanterre, Puteaux and Suresnes)
Now.... There is also a zones of influence for Paris which are called "Petite Couronne" and "Grande Couronne". La Defense is in the "Petite Couronne". it's outside of Paris city limit, but it's still influenced by Paris.
Well, our Capital is a bit strange anyway.... In fact, a lot of bulding in Paris itself are "Historical monument". You can't destroy them, when you renovate them you must abide by very strict rules etc.... it's why, the business district of La Defense was build outside of the city limit.... And it's also why Parisian hate la Tour Montparnasse ^^;
There is an actual law to prevent high building from being built. It’s to preserve the city landscape.
The only tall building are Stock exchange sites and companies hq in La defenses.
The Eiffel tower is the tallest building in Paris. That's the rule.
woah
Said no one ever
I love montparnasse tower
Well yeah it doesn’t really have LA have even bigger Skyscrapers than Paris But in comparison for saying that you must never have gone visit NYC or Chicago. I would say the lesser city that have skyscrapers might be Washington in the USA paris have buildings but they’re not Skyscrapers even Boston are taller.
THAT'S NOT PARIS , THAT'S LA DEFENSE
La Défense is not Paris you baboon
Anyway, fuck tall buildings, no?
is that really mandatory anyway? i prefer not having them
nah everyone brings up la defense in skyscraper-related discussions. but yeah nobody brings it up outside of that though…
everyone hates tour montparnasse tho
Was just in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It’s got more and taller skyscrapers, eh
- except for those ones
Meh. Looks like every city.
To be fair, Paris itself rarely highlights La Defense and often talks down on most cities being nothing but skyscrapers with no soul.