I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t know where the Eiffel Tower is. Or to go a step further, anyone who says they don’t like the Eiffel Tower. Yet, when it was first built there was much resistance from Parisians. They considered it an eyesore! Though it is a tourist attraction, with a capital T, one must fully experience a trip to the top at least once in a lifetime.
The required trip to the top, can be rather unpleasant if in fact you don’t enjoy standing in line like cattle for hours on end, which is why you should follow my tips for visiting the Eiffel Tower.
Once you experience a visit to the inside, make sure you return often for visits on ground level so you can see it from every angle. Scenic photo ops present themselves at every twist and turn and the lawn in front of the tower is one of my top five picnic spots in Paris.
There are nooks and crannies to be discovered, even in the tiny pathways that wind their way in front of the tower
Can you imagine that this grand piece of architecture was not to be a permanent structure? C’est vrai! Constructed for the Worlds Fair, it was to be standing for only twenty years and taken down after that.
Just look at the ironwork, the detail, the pretty scroll pattern in the arch. It is amazing how delicate the details are up close, when from football fields away it just looks like a hunk of metal. It was an engineering marvel for its time. Who in their right mind could tear it down?
And it is so picturesque. She is very photogenic, non? She never takes a bad picture. She is quintessential Paris.
Paris wouldn’t be Paris without it. Like Rome wouldn’t be Rome without the Vatican, or New York City wouldn’t be New York City without the Empire State Building. They all go hand in hand. Could you imagine a Paris sans La Tour Eiffel? I for one am glad I don’t have to.
This particular time, I made a new discovery. Treasures abound when you take a separate path, a zig rather than a zag, an alley not documented on a map. I discovered a beautiful secluded oasis just steps from the busy maze of tourist traffic.
A pond with koi, quacking ducks and graceful weeping willows. The curve of the tower’s arch meeting the ground reminded me of a rainbow. Yes, Paris’s very own iron rainbow. And this oasis was the pot of gold at the end.
Do you think the hoards of tourists would still flock to Paris year after year if there was no giant steel landmark pulling them by magnetic force? Would as many people know Paris if there were no connection to the famous Tour Eiffel? And better yet, what would have happened if they did take it down all those years ago, would life be different?
Care to speculate? How would you feel if the City of Light suddenly announced they were taking her down?