My sister and I have experienced normal panic reactions to life and death situations. One of those life and death situations might be standing on a small platform 1000 feet above the ground when the wind is roaring at 20 knots. As it turns out, Eiffel's Tower has a platform nearly 1000 feet above the ground and on the day we were visiting the wind was whipping. We decided that going at night might make it less scary. Once we got to the top we realized that the gusty wind we were experiencing at ground level were at gust level up on high. No worries, as they say what goes up must come down. But I am getting ahead of myself, first we had the macrons that came with our boat cruise. Then we found a nice Italian place for dinner, wine and pizzas really hit the spot. There was some difficulty getting a gin martini. Apparently folks drink Martini and Rossi straight up and a Martini is just short for a Martini and Rossi. Then we strolled over to the tower and waited to meet our guide. Since there are multiple warnings about purchasing tickets from any other source than the official Eiffel's Tower site we had some lingering doubts about the legitimacy of our tour. These doubts deepened with each minute that passed beyond the 7 PM stated time. We found other folks also looking for the tour guide and shared our concern. Around 7:10 we saw a guy with a Crown Tours windbreaker and rushed over to him. His shift had ended an hour earlier but he took pity on us and called the office to see what was going on. It turned out that our guide was stuck on the Metro so he started processing us. By 7:20 out actual guide arrived and soon we were filtering through the turnstiles and heading up in the elevator. These large elevators hold 34 people and take them to the second platform. The next set of elevators were much smaller and they took us up to the top level. We had to line up for these elevators and were buffeted by the wind while in line. Once we got up to the top the wind was fierce and we have to lean into it. No one that we saw was really dressed for these conditions, brrrrrr. The temperature had gown down along with the sun and so we took some pictures, walked around the platform and headed back down.
A tiny still in the window of a perfumery
Macrons!
Yes please
After some extra explaining Leslie got her Martini
We sat in back by the pizza ovens
It was like an aroma therapy session
This ,man likes his food
Come visit us at out table, we won't bite
Made it over to the tower
The tower has a golden hue
We have arrived
A rainbow off in the distance
It really is huge
At first the tower was called the monster
The locals thought it was like a skeleton
Le Jules Verne is a restaurant
The last rays of the sun
Great stonework
Another bride
More traditional clothing
The most French outfit
72 different names are emblazoned on the side of the tower
All of them were men with names less than 12 letters long. One woman, Marie-Sophie Germain was actually the most instrumental in getting the tower constructed but her name was not included even though it met the 12 letter constraint. Her work on elasticity was vital for the construction of the tower. Her name was not included for the same reason she could not become a member in the French Academy, she was a woman
Looking up
These are the colors that the tower has been painted over the last 138 or so years. It needs to be painted every 7 years to keep corrosion at bay. The painting can take from 18 months to three years to complete
The big brother of Paris
Looking down from the second level
Still a long way to go up
The Seine
Up top it is a wild and wooly place
The spotlight !
Eiffel, Clair, his daughter and Thomas Edison are seen here in Eiffel's office at the top
Original drawings
An odd shop on the second level, is it for perfumes?
