Lé Tower Eiffel!!!

Day: 10

There it is!!! One of the most recognisable monuments in the world!! The Eiffel Tower!!!

It is every bit impressive in real life as it is in photos!! Just catching my first glimpse of it sent an excited shiver down my spine!

The view above is from the Trocadéro and is the best place to get a full view of the Tower. As you walk closer and closer it becomes more impressive. You reach the bridge to cross the Seine and it towers above you, wonderful and incredible.

After waiting in a short line (about 40mins which we thought was pretty good!) Clodie and I board the first elevator that takes us to the first and second levels. No time was wasted and we headed straight for the second elevator that would take us to...the top of the Eiffel Tower!!

It is one of those things that you always muse about, a 'wow that would be great one day' kind of thought. But I am actually here!! It is so exciting!! And a little scary too. It's a tall tower! (About equivalent to 81 stories) and the elevator has glass sides. Not a good time to remember that I am a little afraid of heights...

The view from the top!

Look how high up we are!!

But of course it is fine and we reach the top. The view is incredible and the wonder of it is shared by the sheer fact of being there.

We circle the top level and just stare in wonderment for a bit. Lots of photos get taken and then Clodie and I have champagne and strawberries on top of the Eiffel Tower! Ok, champagne and strawberries minus the champagne (at 10euros for a glass! Ridiculous!) But we did have strawberries and pretended which was just as good. :)

All that separates me from the open air....

At the top they also have a mock-up (with creepily lifelife manequins) of the small aprtment the Gustave Eiffel created for himslef and his daughter Elizabeth. which was reached by a spiral staircase of over 1000 steps to the top! It also has comparisons of the Eiffel Tower to other structures around the world and pictures of all the famous people who visited the tower on its completion and subsequent years (kings, queens etc).

Relectantly we board the elevator to return back down to earth (literally and figurativly). A quick look around the second level and we continue down. Just as we are about to board the elevator that will take us down to the ground there is a problem and the lift is not working. Guess it's to the stiars then!! Oh my goodness!! I am so glad that we caught the elevator up and didn't have to climb the stiars!! There were over 700 of them!! (739 at my count) I was exhausted and we only walked down. Imagine climbing up! Pass!!

It was truly incredtrible though. Well worth the effort it took to get there!!

From the second level, looking up.

After the excitement of the Eiffel Tower, Clodie and I decided to finish off the day of stairs with a climb up to the Sacré Cœur. It is a very impressive Roman Catholic church that over looks Paris, from the tallest hill in the city. I don't know how many stairs there are exactly (I wasn't allowed to count!) but it was a lot. I had to stop briefly for a breather. This was again an indicator that perhaps I should have done some physical fitness training before embarking on my big trip...sigh.

The outside is impressive, even at night and the inside was incredible. I respected their request that we don't take pictures inside and just wandered aorund in awe of the detail (and extravagance) of the inside and marveled at how on earth they built it. (This was the first of many such churches etc that I would wonder the same thing).