Your travel posts have been fantastic! What an amazing trip you all had!
A.M. VISIT TO EIFFEL TOWER
- By : Cynthia
- Category : Vacations - 2009
Vacations - 2009
1
I’m sure everyone would have preferred to sleep in a little longer today (9/26), but again, trying to avoid jet lag I scheduled us to be up and out of the hotel by 7:00 a.m. I actually wanted to leave at 6:30 but Michaela thought that was way too early (LOL – She has obviously not travelled with us before). Not getting much sleep because of the fire alarm going off twice last night sure didn’t help much. Thankfully, we’re at the start of our trip and everyone is full of excitement to carry them through when there isn’t quite enough energy (LOL).
So. We’re up and about ready to head out the door. We have a FULL day today and how much we accomplish is dependent upon how long we end up having to wait our turn for the Eiffel Tower elevators. The ticket booth opens at 9:00 so I figure we should be there by at least 8:00 a.m. We’ll see how we do……
After grabbing some breakfast at the bakery shown in the previous post, we took the metro to the stop closest the Eiffel Tower which was then only only a few short blocks away. Here is our first glimpse of the 1,063 foot (= to 81 stories) tall towering wonder as seen looking down one of the Paris streets.
Another block or so and we stopped to take a few more pictures.
Actually, this was technically our second glimpse because Emily spotted it from the airplane yesterday. The Eiffel Tower was the number one thing on her must-see-while-in-Europe list. Not surprising since it is supposedly the best-known monument in all of Europe and the most visited of all monuments with entrance fees. It’s obviously well visited. Somewhere I read there are about one million visitors per year with nearly 300 million visitors since it’s 1889 inauguration as the entrance arch of the Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair).
I think it ranked pretty high on Amanda’s list as well, but you’ll see in about ten days what her #1 must-see-while-in-Europe sight was. Anyone care to guess what it was?
When we arrived at the ticket area, I was pleasantly surprised to see the line really wasn’t all that long. The big square area under each leg of the tower wasn’t even very packed. It was full, but not really crowded per se. I can’t imaging going during the busy season. Before leaving home, I had debated whether or not we should buy our tickets online. It costs a few dollars more, but you’re guaranteed to get in at a certain time. I opted to save the $$, arrive early, and hope everything I had read about this being one of their slow times was true on the day we visited.
We had an hour to wait in line and look around. The first thing of interest we came to was this statue of Gustav Eiffel.
While I knew that Gustav Eiffel was the engineer for this magnificent structure which was built as the entrance for the 1889 world’s fair, but I didn’t know that:
~~of the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition for the world’s fair entrance, Gustave Eiffel’s was unanimously chosen.
~~at first, it was not accepted by all and a petition of 300 names protested its construction.
~~it was intended to be a TEMPORARY structure. Can you imagine building this thing only to tear it down after the fair was over?
~~It was violently criticized by the Parisians who didn’t want it to remain after the fair was over.
~~It was almost torn down in 1909, but it was saved because of its antenna which was used for telegraphy at that time. Can you see the antenna way up at the top of the above picture?
We also had plenty of time to take turns walking around to take pictures and stare at this amazing steel structure. And, thanks to Amanda’s phone we were able to google quite a bit of info. We were also able to look up info in Michaela’s guidebook.
Here are a few pictures and tidbits of information which I’m posting because I know the boys will enjoy these details:
Weighing between 7,000 and 10,000 tons, this steel structure was the world’s largest building until 1930 or 1931 when that distinction was given to the Empire State Building in NYC upon its completion. It is the second-tallest structure in France.
I’m glad it wasn’t windy the day we went to the top because on a very windy day they say it can sway up to 12 cm. I’m afraid of heights, but as long as its not swaying I’m ok. Speaking of being afraid of heights. They say the height varies by up to 15 cm depending on the temperature.
The lattice tower designed structure has become the global icon of France and it’s one of the world’s most recognizable monuments.
2.5 million rivets……
15,000 iron pieces – not including the 2.5 million rivets…………
it took 300 steel workers two years to build the Eiffel Tower………….
40 tons of paint…………….
Even though it was made from 7,000 – 10,000 tons of steel, it is a low density structure meaning it weighs less than a cylinder of air occupying the same dimensions….
You can climb the 1600+ stairs to the top of the Eiffel Tower (not advisable if you’re afraid of heights) or you can do like we did and ride the special “double” elevator which moves both up and down at two different angles to match the angles of the tower’s legs.
The hydraulic elevator machinery which was originally designed by Gustave Eiffel back in 1889 is still in use today although it has been restored and computerized. What’s an elevator without a counter weight? This thing was GINORMOUS!
another shot of the counter weight? It’s said that these elevators travel about 100,000 km per year.
So, now you know what we did while waiting our turn in line (LOL) – google facts about the Eiffel Tower thanks to Amanda’s new phone and read the info in Michaela’s Paris guide book.
2009 marks the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower. There are special exhibits on site and special activities scheduled to commemorate this anniversary including the printing of a 52-page magazine (which I forgot to see about purchasing while we were there), conferences, 120 classes for 120 years where area kids will have the opportunity to participate in special one-of-a-kind visits, light shows (which I’ll talk about in another post), and they even have a special commemorative entrance ticket in use from May 15th through the end of this year which Emily is holding in the picture below.
The tower has three levels for which you purchase tickets based on how many steps you don’t want to climb (LOL). You can take the 300 stairs to each level or the elevator to the first and second levels. The third level is only accessible by elevator. My mom only wanted to go to the second floor, but the rest of us purchased tickets to go all the way up to the third floor.
We weren’t interested in stopping at the first floor which features a movie about Gustave Eiffel and the 1889 world exhibition because we didn’t have much time and we can read all about those things on the internet. So, we went directly to the second floor where we left my mom to browse the regular exhibits plus the special exhibits which are on display for the 120th anniversary while the rest of us made our way to the summit. This is when we found out that I’m not the only one afraid of heights. Michaela is as well.
Here are the girls and I at the tower’s summet in the outdoor portion of the 3rd floor observation deck. If we had been further ahead in line and/or if we weren’t scheduled for a bit tour at 11:00, I would have enjoyed spending a little more time up here looking around at the exhibits which included a representation of Gustave Eiffel’s office including wax figures and an historical representation of the engineer’s office, again, with wax figures. And, there are also look-out points all around the indoor portion which tell you what you’re looking at. We didn’t take time to do that either since Michaela told us everything while on the outside observation deck.
Since seeing Paris from up high was the main reason we went all the way to the top, we spent most of our time at the outdoor observation area. What an amazing view! This was a GREAT way to start our Paris adventure because we could really get a feel for where all of the things are that we wanted to see. Here are a few of the sights:
The Seine River from the 3rd floor observation deck. Notice it’s quite a bit more hazy than the picture underneath it.
Similar view from the 2nd observation deck….
Another portion of the Seine river as it winds its way through Paris…
And another less hazy picture from the 2nd floor deck…
The Arc de Triomphe which we hope to climb later in the afternoon.
Two pictures of the Tuileries Gardens with the Louvre behind them. Notice the Eiffel Tower shadow. This picture shows the proximity to the River Seine.
While this picture shows the vastness of Paris beyond the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre. Paris goes on FOREVER!
The two pictures above were taken from the very top of the Eiffel Tower while the one below my mom took from the 2nd floor observation deck. Again, notice the haziness in the first two.
We also learned that during its lifetime, the Eiffel Tower has witnessed a few strange scenes, including being scaled by a mountaineer in 1954, parachuted off of in 1984 by two Englishmen, and having journalist ride a bicycle down from the stairs from the first floor in 1923.
You can be jailed for such things. Good thing the girls were content to just observe the Eiffel Tower and weren’t tempted to do anything crazy from it.
When we come back again with the boys, I will definitely schedule more time to wander around each floor so they can observe the magnitude of the structure, learn about the elevators through the exhibits, and I will most likely schedule a behind-the-scenes tour for them so they can see the inner workings of the hydraulic elevators and such.
The official Eiffel Tower website has a ton of great information including a virtual tour for those who want images better than the ones I was able to take with my little camera.
TRAVEL TIPS: One should DEFINITELY plan to be there 1.5 hours early during their slow time so you don’t waste and hour standing in line like w did. Yes. I realize we would still be standing inline awhile by arriving that early, but at least we wouldn’t be standing in line after other things around town had already opened. If you’re going during a busier time then I definitely think spend the extra couple $$s for prepurchased tickets would be a good idea because you have to consider the fact of how much it’s costing you to be in Paris and you want to see as much as you can see in as short a time as possible. Well. That’s my plan anyway. I think
I would definitely plan to, again, have this be one of the first things on the to-do list so one can get a really good visual feel for the Paris landscape and next time I would plan to spend more time reading the information at the look-out points.
I think I would plan to spend about 2 hours looking around the tower instead of the one hour we had plus whatever time you have to spend waiting in line and extra time for the behind-the-scenes tour of the hydraulic elevator system.
