Tour Montparnasse, Paris

What merit can there be in building a 210-metre tall office block in one of the most beautiful cities in the world?

The Tour Montparnasse in the south-west of the city, not far from the famous Montparnasse cemetery, offers great views of Paris from the restaurant on the 56th floor. From this skyscraper, the tallest in France, visitors can see to a distance of 25 miles, or take off by helicopter, perhaps to an airport in one of the suburbs of the city.

Breathtaking aerial views are at a premium in Paris. Today, restrictions limit the height of Paris buildings to seven floors. Yet in times gone by, an urge to reach for the sky had been satisfied in the thirteenth century at Notre Dame, and in the nineteenth century at the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur on Montmartre hill.

Tour Montparnasse was built four decades ago, between 1969 and 1972. Building upwards means in simple terms that offices and workers can be housed. But it is clear that Paris has not built a trend towards rivaling New York or London as a destination for vertically-inclined businesses or employees. Two years after its completion, the building of skyscrapers in the centre of the city was banned.

Why? The monolithic appearance and gross proportions of this tower are a crude attempt to place Paris on a modern international stage. Yet, perhaps the feel of the structure is out of place with the sophistication and elegance of the city which it inhabits.

Alain "Spiderman" Robert conquered the Tour Montparnasse in 1995, the same year that he tackled the Eiffel Tower. Using his bare hands and feet, and with no safety equipment, he climbed the exterior steel and glass wall of the building to the top.