The downtown streets of many cities (like New York, Chicago, and Tokyo) form concrete canyons that draw the eye up to gaze in awe at the impressive skyscrapers feverishly racing up and into the future. Paris, on the other hand, is steeped in history and invites you to slow down and admire her from all angles. Gazing down on the city from the Parisian rooftops triggers joie de vivre rather than vertigo. The rooftops of Paris have inspired countless artists. such as Van Gogh, Gustave Caillebotte, Fernand Léger, and the contemporary Canadian artist Elizabeth Elkin.
Luckily, Paris has no shortage of rooftop bars and rooftop restaurants from which to perch and enjoy delicious French cuisine and crafted specialty cocktails while taking in the city’s beauty from above. Here are a few selections curated for Frenchly readers. [Note: As with sooo many places and activities in Paris, it’s best to call in advance to check if they’re open, as many rooftops close for private events.]
These Paris rooftop bars, from hotel rooftop bars, to rooftop restaurants, to even a rooftop garden, offer stunning views of the Paris skyline. Take in famous landmarks like the Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur, Centre Pompidou, Arc de Triomphe, Hôtel de Ville, and of course, the Eiffel Tower, while peering over Parisian rooftops and the Seine river at the city’s skyline.
How Frenchly Chooses The Best Restaurants and Bars
With an editorial team comprised of journalists who have lived and traveled extensively in France, Frenchly has the unique opportunity to share authentic experiences of the best restaurants and bars throughout France. Frenchly recommendations are based on personal experience, thorough research, and customer reviews. We update these lists regularly as new restaurants open and existing ones evolve.
The 10 Best Rooftop Bars and Restaurants in Paris
- Regain, Printemps du Goût
- Bar Perché (at Printemps Haussmann)
- Le Jardin du Raphael
- TOO Tac Tac Skybar
- Creatures (at Galeries Lafayette)
- Les Ombres (at Musée Quai Branly)
- Sequoia (Kimpton St. Honoré hotel)
- Le Rooftop du Brach (Brach Hotel)
- Le-Tout Paris (at Cheval Blanc Paris)
- Rooftop bar (Hôtel National Des Arts Et Métiers)
1. Regain, Printemps du Goût
While doing some impromptu shopping recently at the Printemps Haussmann department store (housed in one of the most beautiful Art Deco buildings in Paris) my wife and I decided to have lunch at the food court on the eighth floor, where the restaurants offer indoor seating as well as outdoor seating on the building’s wrap-around balcony. During the summer season, al fresco dining is a must in Paris, and it was tough choosing between La Reine Mer (seafood), Supernature (organic food), Suzana (wood oven pizza), Noura (Lebanese), or Regain, a contemporary meat and salad focused bistro. We settled on the latter, where I had the Salade Regain, a generous bowl of spice-rubbed pulled chicken, cherry tomatoes, pickled onions, and croutons for twenty Euros, which was worth it for the breathtaking view. Luckily we arrived before noon because, clearly a popular lunch spot, by a quarter past it was full. This spot offers fantastic views of the expansive Boulevard Haussmann, where Marcel Proust and Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte lived. (Note: Unfortunately the nearby Paris Opera Garnier was covered in scaffolding, as are so many buildings in preparation for the 2024 Olympics.)
Rooftop views: Opera Garnier, Boulevard Haussmann, Eiffel Tower
Printemps du Goût, 64 Bd Haussmann, 9eme
2. Bar Perché (at Printemps Haussmann)
Coming off the escalator at the seventh floor of the Printemps department store, you’re struck by the piles of books neatly stacked on tables everywhere in this new elevated bookstore-café, Bar Perché (perched bar). The elegant lounge by the windows, filled with comfortable wooden arm chairs and tables, is a very inviting place to hang out reading books and magazines while enjoying a teatime gôuter (snack). The free Wi-Fi also makes this a particularly great place to work or take a meeting. The cute coffee bar is by the door, which opens onto a balcony with tables, chairs, and panoramic views of Paris, perched in a cozy elevated café rooftop terrace. The café may be perched high but the prices are not. They have a spectacular marble cake for four euros, chocolate chip cookies for three Euros, and cheese, charcuterie or veggie boards with more than enough to share, at fourteen Euros each. In addition to coffee and teas, Bar Perché serves up a robust selection of soft drinks, beers, wines, and classic cocktails – perfect to sip as the sun sets on the City of Lights.
Rooftop Views: Eiffel Tower, Église Saint-Agustin, La Madeleine
Bar Perché, 64 Bd Haussmann, 9eme
3. Le Jardin du Raphael
Paris rooftop bars are a great way to échapper à la foule (escape from the crowd) after visiting the Arc du Triomphe and the Champs Élysées. I suggest heading a few blocks down Avenue Kleber and scooting up to Le Jardin du Raphael rooftop bar at the classic Hotel Rafael. In addition to liquid refreshments and bar snacks, you can enjoy classic French food and drink at this gorgeous hotel bar terrace. They have great starters like fresh pea soup with Greek yogurt (18 Euros), main dishes like bouillabaisse comme à Marseille (Marseilles style), steak with béarnaise sauce, and tuna steak. Ice cream, sorbet, and crème brûlée are ideal desserts to accompany a summer afternoon hovering above the streets of Paris.
Rooftop views: Eiffel Tower
Hôtel Raphael, 17, avenue Kléber, Paris 16eme
4. TOO Tac Tac Skybar
In the Rive Gauche (right bank) neighborhood of the 13eme arrondissement you won’t find many tourists, and less of the eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture associated with Paris, but you will find very cool high-rises and cultural highlights. Among these is the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National Library), which features stellar exhibitions and lectures (one on Ukrainian Culture, arts and letters, coming this fall). After a visit to the Bibliothèque, or the nearby Triangle de Choisy (Paris’s largest Asian shopping and cultural district), you might want to stop for a stunning view and a chew at Tac Tac Skybar. As the highest rooftop restaurant-bar-lounge in Paris, it offers what is probably the most breathtaking views of any rooftop. From the twenty-seventh floor of the sleek TOO Hotel, you can take in amazing views while partaking in elevated food and drink at one of the city’s luxury hotels. I tasted two wonderfully refreshing salads: melon, avocado, and kimchi salad with honey vinegar dressing; and an avocado, asparagus, and krispy kale salad with yuzu honey dressing. They offer delicious cocktails, like the Sunrise Time cocktail – Saint Germain, vodka, hibiscus, rhubarb, and cranberry – which would be delicious at any time. On Friday evenings things get a little wild, with a live DJ, musicians who have been known to jump up on the bar to play, and lots of other fun surprises.
Rooftop Views: Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides (Napoleon’s tomb), the horizon
TOO Tac Tac Skybar, TOO Hotel 65 Rue Bruneseau, 13e
5. Creatures (at Galeries Lafayette)
If you’re at the Louvre, or the fabulous Jardin du Palais Royal, it would be well worth the twenty minute walk to stroll up the Avenue de l’Opéra to the Galeries Lafayette, a grand department store with a cornucopia of food options. Sharing the roof with the store’s popular observation deck is Creatures, the rooftop restaurant from the talented rising star chef, Julien Sebbag. I find this outdoor terrace to have the best panoramic views of Montmartre in the distance. Creatures is the only rooftop in the French capital I’ve found that opens before noon, so if you want to experience the City of Lights from above at different times of the day (including a decadent Sunday brunch), this would be the place to start. The prix fixe breakfast menu features fresh squeezed fruit juice and tea or coffee, with pancakes, and poached egg with labneh, spices and pine nuts for twenty-two Euros.
Rooftop views: Opéra Garnier, Eiffel Tower, Montmartre
Creatures, 40 boulevard Haussmann, Paris 9eme
6. Les Ombres (at Musée Quai Branly)
On the grounds of the Jean Nouvel-designed Musée Quai Branly by the Seine, perched on the eighth floor, is Les Ombres, the spellbinding rooftop restaurant from Chef Alain Ducasse. Thanks to the restaurant’s magnificent Eiffel Tower view, there was a constant stream of diners posing for selfies in front of the iconic structure looming above this exceedingly photogenic rooftop terrace. From here you can also clearly gaze out onto the Opéra Garnier, Montmartre, and the Seine river.
A fifty eight Euro weekday lunch prix fixe menu makes this heavenly experience quite accessible, and the crafted signature cocktails are as impressive as the stunning view. Take the Halima, for example, a refreshing concoction of pisco, fermented rice, basil, mint, cardomom, lime juice, and agave syrup. Among the perfect summer appetizers are Roasted Green Asparagus with smoked Cod Roe and Coriander, and a fine Marinated Mackerel from Brittany, with Romaine Lettuce and Black Olives. For chocolate lovers, Pastry Chef Eve Minialai’s soft spherical chocolate cake is an appropriately top-of-the-world dessert to enjoy, well, on top of the world.
Rooftop views: THE EIFFEL TOWER!
Les Ombres, 27, Quai Branly, 7eme
7. Sequoia (Kimpton St. Honoré hotel)
I was struck by the energized welcome from the friendly young staff at Sequoia, the V-shaped rooftop terrace poised atop the corner of this five-star hotel like an arrow aimed at the very heart of Paris. A six-minute walk from the luxury fashion epicenter of Place Vendome and Rue Saint-Honoré, a stop here for some post-shopping respite and refreshment is a no-brainer. Chef Barman Thomas served up fantastic cocktails like his eminently summery Barbossa, made with spiced rum, Cointreau, Italicus liqueur, passion fruit purée, and homemade ginger syrup. The bar also has three non-alcoholic specialty cocktails, as well as five takes on the perennially popular Spritz. Bar snacks include beet hummus, guacamole, salmon sushi and tuna makis, among others. (Note: The elevated experience comes with a price to match, with a forty Euro minimum per person.)
Rooftop views: Eiffel tower, Opéra Garnier, Église Saint-Agustin
Sequoia, Kimpton Saint-Honoré Hotel, 27-29 Blvd des Capucines
8. Le Rooftop du Brach (Brach Hotel)
With weathered wood tables, chairs, and recliners nestled among an abundance of trees, bushes, herb beds, and a rooftop garden, I might even classify this Philippe Starck designed rooftop bar on an urban farm. An afternoon at the Brach rooftop is like a day in the country and the city at the same time. And at night, instead of gazing at stars by a campfire, you can gaze on the most amazing views of Paris by night. The rooftop potager (vegetable garden) on this bar terrace grows produce and herbs used in the dishes and tasty cocktails. Enjoying a charcuterie board with cheese and a glass of white wine in this rooftop garden, at one of the best bars in the city, is the true definition of l’art de vivre.
Rooftop views: Eiffel Tower
Le Rooftop du Brach, Brach Hotel, 1-7 rue Jean Richepin, 16eme
9. Le-Tout Paris (at Cheval Blanc Paris)
It’s no wonder Le-Tout Paris at the Cheval Blanc hotel is such a hard reservation to get. Nestled on top of the five-star Cheval Blanc hotel (in the Samaritaine department store complex), it towers over the Seine river. Facing the Rive Gauche, the elegant rooftop has fine-dining French cuisine with stunning views of Paris to match. More of a special occasions destination, starters range from twenty-one to forty Euros, with main dishes between thirty-four and eighty four Euros.
Rooftop views: The Seine, Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, Académie des Sciences, the Panthéon
Le-Tout Paris (at Cheval Blanc), 8 Quai du Louvre, 1er
10. Rooftop bar (Hôtel National Des Arts Et Métiers)
For me, this is the hotel with the most Soho NY vibe in Paris, with sleek, elegant, black-clad staff that are off-the-charts cool (and they know it). We recently stopped at this intimate spot with its comfortable wooden lounge and deck chairs to kill some time over a glass of wine and gaze down at Paris before catching movie, only to discover the rooftop was closed for a VIP private event. While it’s less about the food and more about the view and bar, there’s a limited seasonal bar bite menu from the hotel’s Italian restaurant that rotates daily. Non-alcoholic fruit cocktails are seven Euros, the average price for a glass of wine is ten Euros, and each of the four takes on the Spritz is thirteen Euros.
Basilica Sacré-Coeur, Musée Arts & Metiers, Pompidou Center
Rooftop Bar, 243 rue Saint-Martin
Where is the best rooftop bar in Paris to see the Eiffel Tower?
For Eiffel Tower views, we recommend the Paris rooftop bar Les Ombres at the Musée Quai Branly, where you can enjoy panoramic views of the Paris skyline, and enjoy an unobstructed view of the Eiffel Tower, just a stone’s throw away from this favorite rooftop bar.
Philip Ruskin is an External Lecturer (ESSEC Bus. School), Consultant (food & travel marketing), writer, drummer and regular contributor to Frenchly. He loves to bike around his adopted hometown of Paris. Find him here, on Instagram. All photos by the author, except where indicated.
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