Montparnasse - 14eme, Paris

Spotting the 14th arrondissement is easy from practically any vantage point in Paris thanks to the Tour Montparnasse, a 700-foot skyscraper that looms from the neighborhood’s north corner. Although it’s primarily occupied by offices, the Tour’s top floor touts a shopping plaza and open observation deck, the latter of which affords views many people find more spectacular than those from the Eiffel Tower.

If eye-popping vistas don’t entice, the area is also home to the famed Catacombs of Paris, where anyone not prone to claustrophobia can take a guided tour of a labyrinth of Roman-excavated tunnels, many of which feature walls lined with ancient skulls and bones.

Parc Montsouris, meanwhile, provides a peaceful retreat to recharge after inducing oneself with vertigo and/or morbid awe, and its tree-lined grounds are a popular retreat for students from the nearby Cité Universitaire.

These same students help keep the nightlife scene fresh (and largely affordable), especially down the main drags of Boulevard du Montparnasse and the rue Daguerre.