Paris is a low-rise city, which means the rooftop view is a question of angle rather than of height
The rooftop bars Paris offers are unlike those of most capital cities. There is no wall of towers; the skyline is roofs, domes, and monuments, and the best terraces are the ones positioned to frame them. A seventh-floor terrace in Montmartre and a department-store roof on Boulevard Haussmann give two different cities only a few kilometres apart. Choosing among them is a matter of knowing what you want to look at.
Paris rooftops divide into two types: the elevated view and the framed one.
The elevated view belongs to the tallest building in the city proper. The Tour Montparnasse rises 210 metres and holds an observation deck and the Ciel de Paris restaurant on the 56th floor, and a rooftop terrace on the 59th. Its particular advantage is the one that Parisians themselves quote: it is the only place in Paris from which the Tour Montparnasse itself cannot be seen.
The framed view belongs to terraces at middle height. The top level of the Galeries Lafayette flagship on Boulevard Haussmann has a bar, a restaurant, and a terrace overlooking the Eiffel Tower, the Opéra Garnier, and Les Invalides. Hotel terraces in the 8th, the 16th, and Montmartre do the same at a more private scale.
Several of the most considered terraces in the city belong to hotels. Hôtel Raphaël has a seventh-floor rooftop terrace and bar that opens in the warmer months, and the Terrass”Hotel in Montmartre has a rooftop bar on its seventh floor looking across the city, open throughout the year. The Peninsula Paris, in the 16th arrondissement, has a rooftop restaurant and cocktail terrace on its sixth floor, with views across Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
Hotel terraces suit a different kind of evening: smaller rooms, a table rather than a standing place, and staff who know how to seat a party. They are also the venues that book up on the first fine weekends of the year.
In Paris the sunset can come just before five o’clock in December and close to ten at night in June. A terrace that is memorable at nine on a June evening is in darkness at the same hour in November.
The practical consequence is that the booking should be made for the light, not for the time on the clock. For a view of the Eiffel Tower, the Paris rooftop to choose is the one that faces it, so the question is always which way the terrace looks.
For an evening that continues beyond the rooftop, see our guides to fine dining in Paris and romantic restaurants in Paris.
Tell us the view you want, and we will find the terrace that gives it
A sunset drink usually leads to dinner, and in Paris that dinner is the harder booking. Our fine dining and nightlife service holds tables for the evening, and our business concierge team arranges client evenings with the room, the car, and the timing in one plan.
We choose the terrace by what it faces and when the light falls, hold the table for the right hour, have a covered alternative ready, and arrange the dinner and the car for afterwards. The result is one evening, not four separate bookings.
It depends on the view. The Tour Montparnasse gives height, the Galeries Lafayette roof frames the Opéra and the Eiffel Tower, and hotel terraces offer a quieter evening. Our choice of the top rooftop bars Paris offers changes with the season and the party
Yes, several. The Galeries Lafayette terrace looks across to it, and the Tour Montparnasse gives a wide view that includes it
Late spring to early autumn, when sunset is late and terraces are open. Some hotel rooftops operate only in the warmer months, others all year
For sunset in summer, yes. The better-placed terraces fill first, and a booking removes the queue
Yes. The Tour Montparnasse has the Ciel de Paris restaurant, and several hotels run rooftop restaurants. We arrange the table and the evening around it
