Heading to Paris Tour First was at the top of the bucket list, as the tallest office and the second tallest structure following the legendary Eiffel Tower, we were determined to give it our all. Like The Eiffel Tower, Tour First is one of the older structures in Paris, originally constructed in 1974 under the name of Tour Axa. Large scale renovations occurred in 2007 leading the way for La Defence and their over-the-top glass architecture.
We knew the risk to reward ratio we took with this explore: a previous group had armed police respond to them after setting off an alarm and this was not something we wanted to replicate. The fascination continued once we reached the city, whilst on a slightly lower roof nearby we spotted workers giving what seemed to be an alternative but official tour of the roof, we stood there, envious, knowing our attempt was soon.
The day finally came and we were ill-prepared to say the least, I had no formal shoes and had to borrow a friend’s, so a loose pair of vans were to do the deal for me. We nervously approached the building, tensions were high and we knew that if we were to achieve our plan we had to be confident. We held a talk and got our story finalised so we all were on the same page and could step up if needed. Having gained access to the building, we struggled to shake off security, we were a slightly larger group of five and given our lack of formal wear we stood out like a sore thumb. With a few excuses (including us all going to the toilet) we managed to gain access to the stairs where we began the endless hike to the roof. Given the building’s old-school core architecture, we found ourselves switching in and out of staircases throughout the mission, constantly on high alert. Eventually we began to start running out of options, when suddenly we opened a door to a swoop of summer’s wind, to our surprise we stood amongst the rooftop architecture completely consumed by the endless beams that lay around us. Suddenly, we noticed a silent alarm on the door we had just passed, but there was no point turning back now – this is what we were here for.
We had planned for a friend to take photos of us on the spire from a nearby roof, however, panicked by the alarm, we completely forgot to message as we wasted no time in racing up the side of the building. The complicated architecture saw the group split up. To an innocent bystander we must have looked like a group of ants startled and scattering. I was the first to reach the top and began to shoot pictures, however, the architecture only became more complicated as the borrowed vans began to slide on the narrow beams which lead up to the top of the spire. Shooting became harder than expected and the added pressure of the passed alarm had me on overdrive. Even more nerve racking was the number of workers on the near by roof below us, if any of them were to even glance up it would be game over for us.
I had taken the shots I wanted and wanted to leave, however, some of the group were still only reaching the base of the spire. I was in two minds over what to do – we agreed to split up and meet the others at the bottom. Somehow, it all worked out and we were reunited with the group soon after. We celebrated altogether and the photo below depicts the post-celebration. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and still coming to grips with how smooth the climb went.
