La Tour Eiffel

Oui, je sais! (Yes, I know). After so many years of visiting Paris, I am just now writing a post on the Eiffel Tower, better known as La Tour Eiffel, the icon of not just Paris, but also France and may I suggest probably all of Europe. I guess in the past it just seemed too obvious. That would be like visiting New York and posting about Lady Liberty. The other thing too, I have always enjoyed the Eiffel Tower simply by admiring it- by going for a walk in the neighborhood where it is located and seeing it from various points of view or having a picnic at the Champs des Mars. That’s the park where the tower is situated and where many locals come with friends, significant others, or pets to enjoy a nice afternoon in Paris.

But what happened was, I had a friend from Atlanta who was recently in London for work, and after her project was completed she then came to visit with me in Paris. Being that this was her first time in the city, I thought she would want to go to the Eiffel Tower as most tourists do. So I went ahead and booked the reservations. You can do that ahead of time by going to the Tour Eiffel website and that way avoid the long wait in line, particularly during the summer when it is peak season. Just as a heads up…June and July reservations go fast and by the month of May are usually already booked all the way through August. So book early!

We had reservations for access to both the second level and to the summit. Now having actually toured the tower, I have to say that I cannot believe that I waited this long. It is really a moving and unforgettable experience, and the views of the city are incredible!

Views of the Seine River and Paris’ landscape

Views of La Madeline Church, le Grand Palais, le Petit Palais, Pont Alexandre III (Alexander III bridge), American Cathedral

Views of Trocadero and La Defense

View of Sacre Coeur & Napoleon’s tomb

Oh no. The love locks have invaded even the Eiffel Tower. This is something that started some years ago at the Pont des Arts, the bridge leading to the pyramids pavilion at the Louvre Museum. The idea is to secure a lock on the gate and then throw away the key into the river as a symbol of forever love. The problem is that this fad has become overly popular with tourists to the point where the weight of the thousands of locks is now tearing up the gates of the bridge, presenting a serious safety hazard. So now with no more room on the bridge, people look for alternative spaces to secure these locks.

Views of the Champs de Mars, Ecole Militaire, and Montparnasse Tower

Views of the Seine River, Radio France International and the few above-ground metro train tracks crossing the river

In the beginning, people thought the idea of building some tall metal structure in the middle of the city was horrid! Nobody wanted it. So the tower and Gustave Eiffel himself, the engineer and whom the tower is named after, were both often on the receiving end of much criticism. The scandal was in the newspapers, the subject of gossip around town, and was written about in books and magazines. In fact when the tower was completed, one even chose to dine at the tower, just so that he would not have to look at it! Eiffel finally negotiated and got approval to build his tower by agreeing to finance some of the project himself and also agreeing to take it down after a period of time. So the tower was only meant to be temporary. The city of Paris around the same time needed something with a “wow factor” to present at the 1889 World’s Fair, and so being that this would have been the world’s tallest structure at that time and with Eiffel agreeing to the conditions stated earlier, the plans got approved and so the tower was built.

But later, Eiffel changed his mind about taking it down after realizing not only was his work a true engineering masterpiece, it also turned out to be quite lucrative as people would pay to visit the tower. He had an apartment and an office situated in the summit where he hosted parties and meetings for VIP’s. The photo below is a depiction of a visit by Thomas Edison in 1889. As a gift, he brought over from the United States a phonograph.

At the end, what saved the tower from demolition was that it was discovered that the antennas up top could transmit radio signals, as far across the Atlantic. By WWII, this new radio transmitter proved to be especially helpful as the French military was successfully able to intercept enemy communication. Imagine that!

Visitors can go up to the summit which is 280 meters. However the total height is 324 meters (about 1063 feet). You can see how this compares to other major landmarks in the world including ones in New York, Chicago, and Washington DC.

Views of Paris rooftops

There’s a Champagne Bar up top too.!