Eiffel Tower (part 1 of 2)
Sunday night there was much rain while we slept and the forecast was for more on Monday morning. However, when we looked out the window it looked pretty good so we decided to head for the Eiffel Tower before it got too crowded.
When we arrived there we could hardly believe the line. For once, there wasn’t one! Without wondering too much about why we were only queued behind about 5 other people we purchased tickets. We soon found out that we had purchased passes to walk up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower. That’s OK though as the tickets were about half the price others were paying to ride up, and the line to take the elevator was quite long.
If you are visiting the Eiffel Tower note that there are 4 ticket booths–one at each of the tower’s corners. The south and east corners sell tickets to walk up the stairs. The north and west corners sell tickets to take the elevator.
669 steps later we made it to the second level.
Looking southeast from the tower we could see the Parc du Champ de Mars. The air was particularly clear because of all the rain. We picked the perfect time to climb the Eiffel Tower it turned out. Normally the view would have been much smoggier. We got that view later from other vantage points like Sacre-Coeur and Arc de Triomphe.
The large dome in the middle of the above photograph is Les Invalides over the tomb of Napoleon.
The clouds were almost as good as Copenhagen. Well, maybe not.
The first Statue of Liberty we saw in Luxembourg Park. It was built in 1870. The one viewed from the Eiffel Tower, above, is in the Seine River and has been since 1889. I believe it goes by the name of French Statue of Liberty. It was done at about the same time as the one in New York’s harbor.
Our line, below, of five quickly turned into a line of hundreds. By the time we left the Eiffel Tower the queues went on forever. We got there just in time.