Don’t worry, I’m not going to do a Skyline Countdown for Paris like the one I’m doing for Frankfurt, and even if I did, the 96-meter Chambord Tower (Tour = Tower) on Boulevard Kellermann wouldn’t make it since it is only the 39th tallest building in Paris.
From the name Tour Chambord, you might think it was an exquisitely posh and noble building, since it has the same name as the exquisitely posh and noble Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley, about 150 km to the southwest.
But the Tour Chambord is actually just a quite ordinary residential building on the southern edge of Paris, and the reason I stayed there for a week in 2007 was that my younger son was living there in an apartment with several other students on the 28th floor. (Today’s his birthday, by the way. Happy Birthday, Yannik!)
Looking north from Tour Chambord
From the twenty-eighth floor of Chambord Tower it is possible to see both Notre Dame (3.6 kilometers away) and Sacre Coeur (up on a hill at a distance of 7.4 kilometers) if you look north between the nearby buildings.
More views from the 28th floor
Left: Looking southwest from the balcony on the 28th floor, we can see the Cemetery of Gentilly and the dreadful Boulevard Périphérique, a motorway which separates Paris from the suburbs.
Right: Looking east we can see a complex of high-rise apartment buildings called Les Olympiades, which were completed in 1974.
Looking down from the 28th floor
Left: The then-new tramway T-3, now the T-3a, passes right in front of the Chambord Tower on Boulevard Kellermann.
Right: This park adjoining the Chambord Tower is called the Jardin du Moulin de la Pointe, literally ‘Garden of the Mill of the Point’. It was built in from 1997 to 2001 on the site of a disused railway line, part of which is now walkable as La Petite Ceinture du 13e (= the little belt railway of the 13th arrondissement).
Place des 44 Enfants d’Izieu
At the foot of the Chambord Tower, there is also a small square called Place des 44 Enfants d’Izieu (Square of the 44 Children of Izieu) in commemoration of a group of children and their teachers who were arrested, deported and murdered by the Nazis in 1944 “because they were born Jews”.
My photos in this post are from 2007. I revised the text in 2020.
See more posts on the 13th arrondissement of Paris.
See all posts from the Frankfurt Skyline Countdown.
I’ve stayed in the 13th on a couple of visits. I like the area but probably was north of this tower because I don’t recall seeing it. The views look spectacular! I imagine it’s home to more than a few Air BnBs by now.
Yes. Tour Chambord is right at the southern edge of Paris. There are some taller and more conspicuous buildings nearby.
I’d love the tram at the front door. How convenient . . .
We mainly used bicycles when I was there (the building has a secure bicycle room on the ground floor), but the following winter my son sometimes took the tram to Porte de Vanves and changed there for the Métro to go to his university.
It may be a fairly ordinary residential block, but it has excellent views! How wonderful to see Notre Dame from your windows!
Yes, I liked that.