Le Eiffel

(Sorry for the lousy photos not loading quickly. I've emailed the robots at Flickr about their unacceptable behavior...hopefully they fix it soon.)

After eating our crepes, we headed out on foot to the Eiffel Tower. We figured that the first thing for me to see was the most recognized Parisian site. Our hotel was really quite close to le Eiffel, so it wasn't that far of a walk at all.

We rounded a corner, and I saw this...



Whoa...that is REALLY tall! A little known fact about me. I have an issue with looking up at really tall buildings/monuments with the sky moving in the background. I feel like I'm going to fall down, and pair that with the jet lag, it was totally freaking me out!

As we walked up to the tower, I was getting more and more nervous about going up on it!


But, we had bought our tickets, so I had to get over that woozy feeling! I guess it worked out that it wasn't quite time for us to go up yet, since we got to walk around it a bit. I was impressed with two things on the ground below the tower.

The first was the soldiers, or police with their machine guns. I didn't quite know what to think of that bit. It seemed a bit excessive, and maybe for show. But, it didn't bother me too much, a passing thought.


The second was the large group of young African men selling flashing Eiffel Tower statues, and other souvenirs. They all were selling the exact same trinkets...and hovering around the tourist mumbling to them something about the price and all they had. I've seen a lot of touts in different countries, and these were by far the worst salesmen I've encountered. I don't think they cared at all if they sold a single thing! But the craziest thing about these guys is every 10 minutes or so, they would come running in droves from under the tower with all their little trinkets bundled up in their mats, designed to up and run at a moments notice. We could never figure out who was making them gather their things and run, but it was pretty funny to see!

It was almost time to head up, and I took one more look up to try to hype myself up to go...

so...so tall!

But, I got excited to see the city from up there, so up we went. I'm pretty sure Kris had no idea what a nutter I was about height of it. At least, I tried to hide my knees shaking.

We got into the funicular to take us up to the first level.


The funicular packed full of other tourist going to the first level. Claustrophobia and vertigo all in one go! AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

But hey, I survived, and when we got out, I saw this...look it's Paris!


Kris was great to point out everything...but this is the only one I remember...Notre Dame...((Okay...I told you Kris was good, she informed me in comments that this was not Notre Dame, but some other old church in Paris...maybe someday I'll figure out just exactly what it is!)

(I had to really zoom in to get this photo, so it was hard to get a real crisp shot.)

It was impressive up there...and the wind was biting. And...it was moving. Not only in an emotional way. In a really real real moving and swaying feeling. Don't ask Kris to verify this point, she'll say she didn't feel it. But I PROMISE I felt it moving!

We walked around looking for the post office...we thought there was one on the premises, and I was going to send a post card to a few family members. But we never found it.

We were only half way up...we had one more level to go. And again, I made the mistake of looking up.


I had been up to the first level, and it was impressive. And I what was impressing me mostly, was that I preferred to see it from below! So we headed back down!



See, happy!



All in all...it was impressive, awe-inspiring, worth the money, and all the knee shaking. I can say, now, I have been inside, and ALMOST to the top of the Eiffel Tower. And that's something I couldn't say before I went!