About This Location
This is a mobile audio guide. A map in the app helps with navigation, and the audio starts automatically when GPS shows you have arrived at each spot. Keep your phone handy as you move from stop to stop. Now the tour begins at one of Paris’s most famous photo viewpoints for the Eiffel Tower. Stand on the wide terrace of Place du Trocadéro and face the river. The Eiffel Tower rises right in front of you, perfectly framed by the gardens and fountains below. This spot has been a classic postcard view for decades, and it is easy to see why - the tower feels close enough to touch, even from here. Place du Trocadéro has also seen darker moments. In June 1940, during the German occupation, Adolf Hitler came to Paris for a brief visit and stopped here for a staged photo with the Eiffel Tower behind him. The image was meant as propaganda, but it also became a reminder of how quickly a city can be forced into someone else’s story. Turn your eyes behind you for a moment. The grand building on the hill is the Palais de Chaillot. It dates from the 1930s and was built for a world fair, designed as a sweeping curve that opens toward the tower. Important events have happened here too - including the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Even if that history feels distant, the setting still carries a sense of ceremony. Look down toward the gardens. The long pool and fountains create a straight line that pulls the eye toward the Eiffel Tower, like an arrow made of water and stone. On windy days, the spray can drift upward, and at night the lights turn the fountain area into a stage. Street performers often choose this place, because the view does half the work for them. It is time to head closer and let the Eiffel Tower grow from a picture into a landmark you can feel in the air. Walk down the steps, then follow the fountains and paths through the gardens, keeping the Eiffel Tower straight ahead as the route leads toward it.