Trocadéro (Paris)

Trocadéro offers a suite of museums and gardens, the Paris Aquarium, and the best views of the Eiffel Tower in the city from across the Seine. It is the site of the grand Palais de Chaillot in the 16th arrondissement, in the heart of the city. Trocadéro is served by Trocadéro Station on lines 6 and 9. The Trocadéro area became famous for the two monumental buildings which defined it: First, the Palais du Trocadéro, from 1878-1936 (pictured below), and then the Palais de Chaillot which replaced it in 1937. The Trocadéro grounds and gardens are one of the most popular photo spots in Paris, for good reason!

Paris Trocadero Palace on a 1910’s postcard. (Author’s collection)

The modern view of the Trocadero: The two wings of the Palais de Chaillot, the Fountain of Warsaw, an observation deck, parks and a garden (Photo taken April 2024, before the Olympics)

Historic map of Trocadéro and the 16th arrondissement.

History of Trocadéro

Chaillot was the name of the hilltop village that previously occupied the site. The site became known as Trocadéro after the French victory in the Battle of Trocadéro in 1823, which saw a successful French intervention in Spain restore the rule of Ferdinand VII, against a coalition of liberal rebels. The campaign was largely seen as France’s attempt to reassert itself in Europe following the defeats of the Napoleonic Wars. Victory in Spain was well publicized, as the new regime had succeeded where Napoleon had famously struggled.
The Palais du Trocadéro was constructed for the World Exhibition of 1878, designed as a new centerpiece for arts and culture, with an auditorium, two high wings and towers, and an organ. However, the building was built in an unusual composite style, mixing architectural elements from the Byzantine to the Flemish. On the whole, the building was seen as Moorish, with towers like Minarets, and so it was derided as an eyesore and architectural embarrassment. Moreover, the grand central auditorium had poor acoustics, built to suit its organ at the expense of the stage, and was perennially unpopular. However, the extreme cost of the building saw it persist until the 1930s despite degrading conditions.

The 1937 International Exposition and the new Trocadéro

The 1937 International Exposition saw the Trocadéro reborn, starting with the demolition of the old Palais du Trocadéro. The central halls were removed, the wings renovated, and the Fountain of Warsaw was built down the center of the old gardens. An aquarium was also built, and the newly rechristened Palais de Chaillot became home to a number of museums. Two statues from the old palace, an elephant and a rhinoceros, were moved to the Musée d’Orsay.
The Paris exhibition was the site of a major ideological standoff in Europe before WW2. The Soviet and Nazi German pavilions were placed right next to each other, with the German pavilion designed explicitly to “counter” the aesthetics of the Soviet pavilion on the world stage. The 1937 Exposition, along with the 1936 Berlin Olympics, would be one of the last Pan-European collaborations before the outbreak of World War II. Just three years later, in 1940, a famous photo of Adolf Hitler and the Eiffel Tower would be taken from the front terrace of the Palais de Chaillot, looking over the occupied city.

The Modern Trocadéro. After World War II, the Palais de Chaillot was the site of the adoption of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. It was also used as the first NATO headquarters building in the late 1940s.
During the 1980s and 90s, the Trocadéro grounds were heavily renovated to support the gardens, museums, and the increasing numbers of tourists. Today the Trocadéro contains:
–The Aquarium de Paris (Paris Aquarium),
–The Musée national de la Marine (National Navy Museum),
–The Musée de l’Homme (Museum on Mankind),
–The Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (City [Museum] of Architecture and Heritage),
–The Théâtre national de Chaillot (National Theatre of Chaillot),
–The Jardins du Trocadéro (Gardens of Trocadéro).

Paris 33’s review of the Trocadero

By M. Blinov.
With over 25 years of experience in Parisian tourism, our team has accumulated a wealth of experience and a photo archive of views of Paris and France at different times of the year and day. We post such photos with descriptions on the website and will soon post archive views of Trocadero. But 2024 is a special year, the Olympic Games in Paris are a rare and very important event for everyone. For this reason, before the start of the Olympics, in April, we took a test walking tour of Trocadero to find out the condition of this wonderful tourist site and landmark of Paris. Below we post a photo gallery and our comments, which may be useful to guests of France.

Independent Walking Tour of the Trocadero (April 2024)

As written above, on April 16, 2024, I decided to walk around the Trocadero area to see if it was ready to welcome guests to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. I planned to walk for two hours, split evenly between the Eiffel Tower area and the Trocadero area. I arrived at the Trocadero metro station to start the tour at 2 pm. According to the weather forecast, it would be alternately cloudy and sunny, speckled with light rain. This is typical for the fickle Parisian summer. In spring and autumn, the weather is very mercurial, the sun can be replaced by clouds at a moment’s notice and suddenly it can rain. This was the case during my walking tour of Trocadero.

Coming out of the metro, I immediately noticed construction and repair work on the square. The square has a double name Trocadero – November 11 in honor of the end of the First World War. There is a huge monument to the Hero of the First World War, the famous Marshal Foch on the square. For this reason, we advise fans of the WW1 battlefield tours to cross the square and take a photo in front of this monument. I have visited the monument many times, so I took a photo of it from a distance, together with the workers who are preparing the square for the Olympics.
After 50 meters, I turned left to the observation deck, having previously studied the concert program of the palace. The sky was cloudy, as it had recently rained, and a fine film of water remained. In such rare moments, the water creates a mirror image of the Eiffel Tower and people, which, in my opinion, is very beautiful. This place offers magnificent panoramic views of Paris. It is also an excellent place for photo shoots of models and fashionable clothes for magazines. To the left and right of the observation deck are landscaped gardens and fancy bushes. Below the observation deck, there was renovation work, preparations for the 2024 Olympics. We wrote about the further trip to the Eiffel Tower and the fair in another section, here we describe the return.

On the way back, in Trocadero Park, there were some criminal groups of swindlers. The most common scam in the touristy areas of Paris is the classic shell game, with a ball hidden under one of three cups. They will let you win some small change to lure you in, but cheat or extort you once real money is offered up to bet. An organized criminal group consists of a leader (croupier), false players posing as tourists (2-3 people), militants (2-3 people) to exert force on the deceived and police observers (1-2 people). Sometimes the functions of the gang members coincide or they change roles. During our walking tour near the Eiffel Tower, one policeman drove out a harmless souvenir seller, but the cup players were not touched. It is necessary for every tourist to avoid these scams, and to report them to the nearest police if possible. The problem is that when uniformed police approach, the players immediately run away. It is necessary for the police to change into civilian clothes and conduct special operations against such dangerous gangs. Let’s hope that the groups of scammers shown in the photo will be caught. But once again we recommend tourists not to be idiots and not to play with scammers either at Trocadero or anywhere else in Paris. Our tour guides are well versed in these common scams and know how to protect our clients from them, and ensure they do not sour your experience in Paris.

Trocadero Tourist Information

You can visit this place during an independent walking tour from the Trocadéro metro station. The grounds of the Palais du Challiot are an excellent observation deck for the Eiffel Tower, the Seine, and the heart of Paris. The Trocadéro metro station is also the nearest metro to the Eiffel Tower. For first time visitors to Paris, our series of sightseeing tours of the city also pass through Trocadéro during the day or in the evening.