Leaving the Louvre, we decided to go to the Arc, because we
could see it from the museum, meaning it had to be close. Lies. Deception.
Trickery. According to Google, the two are separated by a 45 minute walk. I
think it is safe to assume that this period is calculated without including
stops to look at cool things along the way. We were also looking for a place to
eat that wouldn’t break the bank, but we quickly realized that cheap food would
be hard to come by, and decided that if we were going to have to shell out for
lunch, we would do it in style, and would eat in the Eiffel Tower restaurant.
Hence, we diverged from our path to the Arc, and headed for the tower.
 |
| Still 1.7km away |
It looked pretty big as we started walking toward it, but we
came to realize, that once again, we had been deceived by its size, and our
destination was actually much farther away than we thought. As we walked
closer, it began to loom ever higher overhead, and I realized how truly large
this landmark is. For some reason, I never grasped its size from pictures, but
this tower is 1063 feet tall, quite a feat when you take into account that it
was constructed in 1889.
 |
| A Couple Blocks Away |
This structure is unique in its lack of walls; it’s like the
skeleton of building, only made from steel and rivets. We paid for our tickets,
including a trip to the very top, and joined the elevator queue. It dropped us
at the 2nd floor, a mild inconvenience for us hungry people who
wanted a hot meal in a restaurant with walls, on the 1st floor. This
necessitated a climb down the tower, over 300 dizzying steps. It is very
difficult to focus on the climb when you can see the ground below you, and feel
the wind whipping around. To conserve space, the levels are built on top of one
another, so you feel like you are climbing down in a circle, further enhancing
the terror of the climb. I do not recommend this for anyone who is afraid of
heights (Hi mom) in any capacity, just pay to take the elevator.
 |
| Directly Underneath the Center of the Tower |
In the restaurant, we ordered some very tasty food and drank
some French wine in France. The waiter was not so great. I think he either
resented us for being so young, or was prejudiced against us, and expected us
not to pay or tip. Regardless of the reason though, he provided much better
service to all the older couples in the room. We were ready to go and trying to
get him to bring us our check, when he started hurrying all of the people out
of the tower. He was acting very flustered when he asked us all the please pay
and hurry out of the building as there had been a threat. Another (American)
patron asked, “What a bomb threat?” and the waiter confirmed this to be true.
For whatever reason no one panicked, we all quickly and orderly made our way to
the elevator. This reminds me of an important point: always carry cash in case
the international monument you are dining in has a bomb threat and you need to
evacuate quickly. Words to live by people.
 |
| PHOTO BOMB!! |
At the bottom we loitered for a few minutes, trying to
decide the legitimacy of the danger at hand. We decided on the off chance there
was a bomb, we would vacate the area, and not die in the pile rubble. Since we
had other destinations on our to do list, we picked one that put as much distance
between us and the tower as possible. We kept checking back to make sure it was
still there, and tried to count the police cars that raced toward the tower. It
was strange to walk through the city knowing something that the millions of
other people around us did not. As it turns out, it was only a threat, but
better safe than sorry. http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Europe/Eiffel-Tower-evacuated-over-bomb-scare/Article1-780349.aspx
Scroll right and left to see the whole picture!
I know its a big picture, but I didn't want to shrink it. Now you can imagine you are there too!
 |
| Panorama from the 2nd Floor |
No comments:
Post a Comment