Tour Eiffel

We caught the metro to Ile De La Cite and had lunch in an outdoor cafe, near the Sorbonne, on the Boulevard Saint Michele. It was of course much warmer than the last time I had had anything to eat on the Boulevard, as the last time it was January and freezing (and I was 14). We walked back down to the Ile DeLa Cite and tried to see the Sacre Couer. It was too busy. Then we walked along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel tower in Paris was inaugurated on 31 March 1889. It was the keystone of the Universal Exposition celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution. It was built by Gustave Eiffel. With 2 million visitors the first year and almost 6 million people a year today, the Eiffel Tower is a real crowd pleaser. Not bad as a temporary tower that was really meant to come down after the Expo. In 2000 they called in the new century with a firework display, and today they have a light show most nights.

Parisian's are not happy with the light show, tourists of course love it. If you are interested in the facts and figures about the tower, then click on the link at the top of this page.

It took us 45 minutes to get to the lift. Then another twenty minutes waiting for the lift and finally we rose to the second level. The second level has two stories, multiple shops, cafes and a restaurant. The views were stunning and it was not too windy. We then queued again for the lift to the third level. There was no signage that we could see to direct us to the queue, we just followed others. There were several groups of Aussie and NZers in our queue's. The top story was very crowded and made me feel a bit claustraphobic, also I was not feeling well and there was nowhere to sit down.

Around 7pm we made our way back down to the street and caught a taxi home. J went to the Monoprix to buy supplies for tea.
Mondo