day three (4): la tour des tours et plus

La Tour Eiffel

Let me just say here and now that I have a fear of heights... and while I'd already managed the walk up and views out of both Sacré Coeur (83 metres) and Notre Dame (67 metres), that is NOTHING compared to the 324 metres of la Tour Eiffel... and we went up to the flippin' top! Yup, if anything was going to help me tackle my fear of heights, la Tour Eiffel was gonna be it.

---

As we arrived on the Batobus we got the first clear views of this magnificent structure...

Before attempting to ascend the structure we decided a fortifying Ice Cream was in order...

Once we were sufficient satisfied with our snack we headed to the Tower. You cannot help but be impressed by this structure. And it's damn near impossible to take an uninteresting picture of it...

After waiting 45 minutes in line for tickets, we took the elevator...



...to the 2nd deck, where even more pictures were taken...

And then we waited another 45 minutes to take the second elevator to the top (3rd deck). And you know what... the height was not that bad. My guess is I was just too damned impressed with the views to care that we were so high up. Well, that and the fact that you were basically caged in so couldn't fall off it if you tried. But I DID manage to stick my camera out for one pick straight down (before I was stopped by security)

It's at this moment that I pull off one of the more romantic things I've done... and disappeared, only to come back moments later with two flutes of Champagne...

Ah, the views... Starting, facing South-West we see the Seine, and the Île des Cygnes...



Which contains at the far end, a replica of the Statue of Liberty...



Now looking North-West we see, again, the Seine, le Pont d'Iéna and the Trocadéro.

Looking now East-North-East we can see the Le Grand Palais, Le Petit Palais, le Pont des Invalides, le Pont Alexandre III, Place de la Concorde, La Madeleine and Le Opéra Garnier...

And then Eastward; l'Hôtel des Invalides, Notre Dame (it's there, just look for it) and the Panthéon...

South East you look down Le Champs-de-Mars and to the Ecole Militaire...

A close up of the Champ-de-Mars will show a Heart in the grass... I don't know why it's there other than to simply say, Paris IS the City of Love...

And so after 45 minutes of checking out the views and 20 mins waiting for the elevator we arrived on the 2nd deck, looked around a little more, had a hot chocolate (it was a little breezy on the top and it was only 17'C) then we started our descent down the steps to the base of the Tower...

Once down we again were impressed by the views... this one from directly under the centre of the tower looking up...

By now it was 8:30 pm and we headed across le Pont d'Iéna, and headed toward the Trocadéro. We walked around a little, got a bite to eat and then waited til 10:00pm when La Tour Eiffel is lite for the evening... and starting then for the first 10 minutes each hour it twinkles with thousands and thousands of lights placed all over the Tower.

We watched the Tower twinkle, as if only for us and then after a bust day of over 10 hours of sight-seeing it was time to head home and crash... after all tomorrow we are headed to Versailles...