Champ de Mars
The flat green where the world's first hydrogen-filled balloon rose in 1783 and Paris held its first Bastille Day in 1790 — now the lawn everyone crosses to reach the Eiffel Tower.
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Long lawns line up the Eiffel Tower at the northwest end with the École Militaire at the southeast, so you walk the tower's full-length approach across what was once the city's military drilling field.
What to look for
- At the southeast end, the École Militaire (Ange-Jacques Gabriel, begun 1765) closing the axis — the building whose construction first shaped this field.
- The dead-flat central lawns: the former marching and drilling ground that named the park, after Rome's Campus Martius.
- A basketball court and football field on the grounds — the same park that hosted beach volleyball and blind football as the 2024 Olympics' 'Eiffel Tower Stadium'.
Three stations serve it: enter from Métro École Militaire for the tower-down-the-lawn walk, or use La Motte-Picquet–Grenelle or RER Champ de Mars–Tour Eiffel.
Champ de Mars is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Place de la BastilleThe prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.