2006 Europe Trip
Paris: The Eiffel Tower
We'd been given good advice to visit the Eiffel Tower about an hour before sunset. This way, you can see it in both daylight, then sunset, then twilight. We also took the advice that the Champs du Mars (the park area surrounding the tower) is a good place for a picnic. So, we took the metro to the Ecole Militare stop and wandered the Rue Clare are looking for picnic food. Any other day of the week, we would have assembled the best picnic ever from the many pastry shops, bakeries, fruit stands, butcher shops, etc. However, it was Sunday and most everything was closed. We eventually found one bakery and one small grocery store, so had bread & butter with cokes. It was surprisingly good -- as was the view! Anyhow, you may see pictures of the baguette in a few of our Eiffel tower pictures. :)
A long view to the Tower
Matt.
The view from the base.
This place is well-protected!
Waiting in line
Matt ponders Eiffel's engineering feats (or something)
You can buy tickets for just the first level, or add the second, or add both second and third. We decided to go to the top. The elevator takes you to the second level first. While we were on the second level, the lights were illuminated for evening.
This shows Sacre Coeur (top left)
This includes the Pantheon (see tomorrow's pictures), and Notre Dame towards the top.
Becky looking out
This is a view to things closer to the tower itself.
Matt, in his Ping shirt, on the Eiffel Tower (as a shout-out to Jeff and our fellow Elitists).
It's a long way down!
Perspective views of the Tower.
The second level has two decks -- here's Matt on the second deck looking down at Becky.
The views from the second level are the best. The top level is high, but honestly doesn't provide very good views. We rode up there, looked around a bit, then came back to the second level via elevator. From the second deck, we walked down the steps. It really wasn't too bad, other than the bright spotlights shining up on us! We stopped briefly on the first level (which also isn't the best), then walked down further.
And, finally, back to the bottom -- which we reached just as the sparkling lights went off (they run from the top of the hour to ten-after).
