I’ve seen it before. I’ve been up it before. I don’t care. It’s still a thrill to see the Eiffel Tower, even if it is with many hundred of your closest friends and a couple of strangers.
It’s the most visited monument in the world, and you have to be ready for it. I waited a week or so after advance ticket sales opened up 60 days before our trip, while I was setting an itinerary. Well, it turns out all the regular tickets were sold out, so I bought more expensive tickets that got us each a plastic flute of champagne at the top level.
And I don’t care – it’s cool to sip champagne on top of the Eiffel Tower (even if I wasn’t convinced I could hold the bubbly in – not a spoiler: not a problem!).
Buying tickets in advance allowed us to breeze through the lines until the wait for the elevator – which wasn’t a bad wait. During the wait in line, we chatted with some other Americans in either side of us, a couple from the Seattle area and a couple from the Bay area.
The elevator takes you first to the second level, where you get off, and find the next elevator, taking you the rest of the way from about 400 feet up (second level) to 900 feet (top level).
You have to go to the top. You can stair climb if you want, but it’s 360 stairs to the first level (200 feet up), and another 360 to the second level. Even though there are another 945 stairs to the top, you can’t take them up. Or down.
We ended up walking down the 720 steps from the second level to bottom after we were done. Don’t believe them when they say it’s ten minutes to the bottom from the 2nd level, unless you do it at a slow jog, I suppose.
The Tower stands 1,063 feet tall, has four support pillars, and has over 7,300 tons of metal. Built in 1889 for the World’s Fair by bridge builder Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world from 1889 till 19XX, surpassing the Washington Memorial. It was controversial, as critics said it would either sink into the ground or fall over in the huge winds. (Spoiler alert: Neither has happened yet.)
The Tower was supposed to be dismantled after the World’s Fair, but the public loved it so much it was kept around.
Hitler wanted it dismantled, but the German general in charge put the idea to sleep. Instead the Nazis broadcast propaganda from the Tower for four years.
The second floor is actually better for photography, but there is joy in being on either the second floor or at the top. It’s fun to spot sights like Notre-Dame (takes some work), the Louvre, the Arc d’Triomphe, the Pantheon, Les Invalides, and much more.
At the top you see the small apartment given to Gustave Eiffel, a place where he once entertained Thomas Edison.
The only way to see the first floor is to take stairs – we did by going up the elevator, and then after our visit to summit and return to the second floor, we took the stairs down. If you have the time, it’s worth doing.
Anyhow, seeing the Eiffel Tower, as well as going up it, brings me joy. If you’ve never been, I hope you get there and experience the thrill of seeing it yourself.
Thanks for the info
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