Oct 4, 2012
Views from la Tour Eiffel
It has been a good many years since I last ascended the Eiffel Tower. If I recall correctly, the last time I went up would be in 2004 with Beejay (his 21st birthday present; a trip to Europe from Andrew and I!) but Andrew assured me it would have been 2006 when he was visiting Paris with me and his then new wife. Either way, 6 years, 8 years, those were a lifetime away. Fast forward and what do you know – us three siblings visiting anew together, them with spouses and kid in tow!
Given the fame of the Iron Lady, to have each deck of the tower filled with visitors is nothing new. But the number of pushy “photographers” trying to jostle for a spot of their favourite views, that’s a whole new level of crazy. It mattered not to them that they were pushing aside a lady carrying a young child but luckily my niece is pretty much the zen-kind of little girl, so she just looked at them curiously then got back to surveying her surroundings.
In between, the boys managed to grab a few shots of the city (among tons of family shots) for keepsake. I took very few myself for some odd reason… Anyway, here are some of the photos that they have shared with me, so credit to them! (And gosh, I want my brother’s camera – now that I’ve got a change to play with a kick-ass camera, my puny point-and-shoot seems a bit limiting.)
I have always pondered what are people spying with using these deck binoculars…
This shot boasts not only Champ de Mars, École Militaire and Tour Montparnasse but also Les Invalides, St Sulpice, Pantheon, Necker Hospital and Unesco Paris, just to name the main ones.
I love that the shadow of the Eiffel Tower looms over as we look towards Montmartre (spot the Sacré-Cœur), to also find Quai Branly, Grand Palais, Petit Palais, Pont Alexandre III, Louvre and Centre Pompidou within the shot.
Love this one of Sacré-Cœur and the hill of Montmartre!
This photo shows just how tall the Arc de Triomphe is, and at the top, tiny people surveying Paris from a different point of view! (And these folks see the Eiffel Tower, of course)
Paris vs sub-urb; in this case the Trocadéro lies within the city limit, with Bois de Boulogne separating the financial district of La Défense just a little bit beyond.
All these photos were taken from either the first or second viewing deck areas. We didn’t make our way to the very top as the tower was just swarming with visitors and the queue for the big top clocked in at about 1-hour mark. Even then, there were people still looking for tickets to get all the way up but until the traffic to the top cleared up a bit, the tickets were simply not for sale.
Coming down took some queueing time too, in case you are wondering.
Really though, when is it ever a good time to visit the Eiffel Tower without subject to all the queueing and madding crowd? Going late at night doesn’t change much since I’ve seen determined queues even when it’s all dark and cold… The one possibility I can think of now is by paying for an über fancy meal at Le Jules Verne and ride in their private elevator, but for that, I’ll have a lot of saving up to do. Or a sugar daddy to find.
cool photos! :)
thanks but real kudos to the boys ;)