The Eiffel Tower, Some Tips

So, it's time to tell you about our visit to the Eiffel Tower.  I could start by telling you lots of important info about the tower itself--how it was built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889 for the World's Fair, it's still the tallest building in Paris, and millions of people visit it each year., but I don't want to waste your time with a bunch of facts by sounding like a tour guide.  You can google the rest, just like I did.

I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed in the tower. (I know, many of you are shocked and I've ruined your dream.  Sorry.) It's not that it wasn't beautiful, because it was. And it's the icoinc sight in Paris, and I'm nothing if I'm not a landmark groupie. I cannot tell you how many times I have said to the brats,  "Here stand in front of _________ (insert name of famous landmark here) and let me take your picture....stop wiggling and smile!  Lord, y'all are driving me crazy!!!! You'll appreciate this one day!!"

It's hard to describe being disappointed when seeing one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, certainly in Paris, but I was.  I saw a movie once where the main character walked around in Paris looking everywhere for the ET but kept missing it.  Impossible.  The tower was everywhere. 

It is everywhere and completely impossible to miss.  We made a big deal about buying the tickets to climb the tower.  Everything, literally everyone I talked to and everything I read said BUY YOUR TICKETS TO CLIMB THE TOWER AHEAD OF TIME AND ONLINE.  So I did. When everyone tends to tell me to do something, I tend to just do it.  I'm a follower that way. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason when they were put on sale and so my friend Shannon just continued to look at the website.  Finally the company that manages the tower released the block of tickets for the time period when were would be there and we bought ours.  That time period was literally sold out in a day. So my advice to you is, if climbing to the top of the tower is a must, BUY YOUR TICKETS TO CLIMB THE TOWER AHEAD OF TIME AND ONLINE--EARLY. Stalk the website. Here it is, by the way. 

Sorry, I digress.  When you pre-buy your ET tickets online, you're given a time to climb.  They are pretty strict about it, too, because we actually arrived 15 minutes early and they wouldn't *think* about letting us get in line until it was our time.  The cool thing (literally and figuratively) about the prebought tickets is that you get to take the elevator up.  I suppose you can skip the line and climb the stairs if you wanted to....you crazy person... We just took the elevator; we are smart that way.

The view from the top was nice.  Just nice.  It was a hazy and cloudy day, so everything was hazy and cloudy.  Meh.  I remember thinking, "I should be impressed.  I should be more excited!" But I just wasn't.  Climbing the tower was ok.  The view from the ET was ok, but honestly, the view from the Arc was just SO MUCH BETTER because it included the ET, I was less than impressed.  Would I do it again?  Probably not.

Once is enough. 

Here's some pictures: 

View of the tower from our apartment in Paris 

Oh my God, There it is!!

Under the tower: long lines of people waiting to climb to the top

Views from the top

Everything was just starting to bloom...

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