Tour Eiffel

Sunset over L'Defense from Eiffel Tower

This morning we had planned to go to the Museum D’Orsay (which has some famous artworks such as Van Gogh) but it was closed. We found out later it was a strike so glad we didn’t wait around!

Instead we headed across town for some shopping, passing by the Paris Opera House on the way.

That evening we made our way across Paris to the Eiffel Tower, hoping that the clouds would move off. Its sounds odd but its larger than you think – it’s not until you get closer to the tower that you realise how tall it is!

Seeing the Eiffel Tower is a little different than you expect. It’s kind of a light brown colour, almost tan. It pops into view all over different areas of Paris – you come round a corner and there it is above trees or in a gap between buildings. Whether the sky is a brilliant blue or cloudy it almost looks like a projection or a mirage, half there half not. This could be due to the colour, the fact you can see through it, or that it looks the same from nearly every angle, but its quite remarkable. At night, the golden colour is such a contrast to the day that it almost looks like a different structure. Mr Gustav Eiffel was a very clever designer.

Because we’d pre-purchased our tickets we were guaranteed entry at 9pm and were allowed up to the third level right up in the very top section (unlike the hundreds of others in the queue). After a somewhat harrowing elevator ride up one of the legs, we made it to the second level (skipping the 704 steps).

The tower was originally intended to be temporary (built for the 1889 World Fair in Paris) but they kept it when its 20 year permit expired – it worked as a good radio tower. And it kept the record for worlds highest man-made structure until 1930.

The view was awesome – because of its relatively central location and Paris being so flat, you could see the entire city.

Clint doesn’t like heights, so despite his best efforts he didn’t go higher than the second level (115 metres). (It wasn’t really the height, so much as the fact the floor started slanting at 30 degrees and was trying to throw me off, or so it seemed :P)

It began to get dark around 10pm and the tower was lit up, bathing it an amazing golden colour. It also has 20,000 flashing lights that trigger every hour, creating an incredible light show. As the sun set over Paris, I waited in the queue for the top level. I managed to get up to the top (3^rd level, 276 meters) about 11pm. This meant that it was dark all over Paris and the city was lit up making for a fantastic view.

After the queue for the lift from the top to level 2, I decided to skip the queue (so many queues!) on level 2 and take the stairs – 704 steps later I was on the ground. I think I might pay for that later… All up it took about 3 hours – 1 hour to level 2, 1 hour to level 3 and then an hour to get back down.

We wandered back to the hotel along the Seine (as you do) taking in Paris at night.

Champ de Mars from Eiffel Tower 

Champ de Mars from Eiffel Tower (Night)