The Eiffel Tower

Hey guys,

Just a quick blog about THE cultural experience in Paris if you are a tourist...that's right, The Eiffel Tower. My friend Jon just finished a study abroad program in Oxford a couple of weeks ago, and on the grand tour of Europe he is going on after it, he stopped in Paris to visit. We took a day trip to Chartres on Sunday to see the Cathedral, and hung out on Sunday and Monday together. He asked me what I hadn't done in Paris that I wanted to do, and I said the Eiffel Tower. Kathy suggested that I go here when the sun was setting because it was super gorgeous then, so Jon and I headed there at around 7:30. You should have seen the lines there! Hundreds of people in every direction. We chose the shortest one, which ominously said stairs on it. After standing in the line for a half an hour or so, we got to the front and found out that the reason that the line was so short was because there was no elevator from this part of the tower. Did I mention that I'm afraid of heights? Well it was completely obvious from the 300 or so stairs (CORRECTION: I just looked it up and turns out there are 647 steps or 115 meters, or 38 stories to the 2nd level) we had to climb to the 2nd landing. Don't know exactly how far up the 2nd landing is, but I would suggest for you to look it up and gape at what we accomplished. There were practically no tourists on the stairs with us, so perhaps they got the memo. Jon was trying to keep me distracted the whole time, but I could only manage one word answers trying not to freak out the higher up and up we kept climbing. When we hit the 1st landing we got a sense of what was to come. It was cold, the wind was whipping across our faces, and there was a light mist hitting us. We forged on, climbed to the 2nd landing which was, thankfully, where we could catch the elevator to the top. Before that occured though, we stood in the line for the elevator for at least half an hour. At this point, the wind was at least 15 or 20 mph, it had started raining (sideways, of course), and the temperature was probably about 60°F. It was basically the moment when both of us would catch pneumonia. FINALLY, we got on the elevator and made it to the top. Fear wise, this was worse then the stairs, and Jon kept saying how great the view was, and I kept peeking my eyes open to see, though the elevator was so crammed I felt claustrophobic on top of acrophobic. The view at the top was amazing though. On a clear day (not this day) you could see all the way to Chartres, 88 km away. The wind was even worse up here, I practically felt like it would knock me over. We found a window in a staircase that still looked out, but protected us from the wind. So we stood there for about an hour, waiting for the sun to go down. It was a comfy spot, not windy or rainy, I think we had the best spot from all of the tourists. Finally, the sun went down, and all of the lights started coming on around the city. We made a final round of the top deck, taking more pictures. At 10 PM, the Eiffel Tower started sparkling, but we couldn't see it very well since we were on it. So we took about a half hour on the elevator getting down (thank goodness, no more stairs), and headed out. We stopped at a cafe, because Jon hadn't seen the Eiffel Tower sparkle, and I told him he had to see it before he left, so we ordered hot chocolate and waited until 11 when it started sparkling again. What a cool sight. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up on the net, there should be a video somewhere. Then he headed back to his hotel (he headed to Brugges the next day) and I went back to my apartment and took a hot bath, trying to warm up. So although I faced one of my only fears, nearly got pneumonia, and nearly got knocked off my feet by the crazy wind, it was a quintessential Paris experience.

Love to all,
Emily