Le Bourget Air Terminal (Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace)
The terminal where Paris met the age of flight, and where Lindbergh came down out of the dark in 1927.
At a glance
Le Bourget was the first airport of Paris. It opened to commercial traffic in 1919, and on a May night in 1927 Charles Lindbergh landed here at the end of the first solo flight across the Atlantic. The long Art Deco terminal that fronts the field was designed by Georges Labro and inaugurated in 1937. Today it is the main entrance to the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace.
Key facts
- Location: Le Bourget, north of Paris
- Architect: Georges Labro
- Terminal inaugurated: 12 November 1937
- Style: Art Deco
- Today: Air and Space Museum (main entrance since 2019)
History
The airfield handled the first Paris air services from 1919 and grew through the 1920s as the gateway for record-breaking flights. Lindbergh’s arrival in 1927 made it world-famous overnight.
To match its status, Labro won the competition for a new terminal and completed it in 1937, its long façade and grand booking hall — the Salle des Huit Colonnes — built in confident Art Deco. As jet airports moved traffic to Orly and then Roissy, Le Bourget turned to business aviation, air shows and memory. The terminal became the museum’s main entrance in 2019, at the centenary of Le Bourget.
What you see
The terminal runs low and long across the apron, a horizontal Art Deco block with a central hall lit through tall windows. The Salle des Huit Colonnes, the hall of eight columns, keeps the scale of 1930s air travel, when boarding a plane was an event. Outside, aircraft stand where passengers once queued.
Practical information
- Open: museum closed Mondays; check seasonal hours
- Cost: grounds and many halls free; some exhibits ticketed
- Best for: the Art Deco façade and the Salle des Huit Colonnes
- Time needed: half a day with the museum
Getting there
Le Bourget lies about 11 km north-north-east of central Paris. Bus 152 and airport shuttles reach it; the RER B stop at Le Bourget is a short bus ride away. The Paris Air Show fills the field every other June.
Nearby
- Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace — the collection behind the terminal
- Basilica of Saint-Denis — the royal necropolis, a few kilometres south-west
Sources
- Wikipedia — Paris–Le Bourget Airport; Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace
- Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace — official history
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
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