France

Eiffel Tower

A Byrd

— 5 min read
Eiffel Tower
Family selfie from the Eiffel Tower's second level during the 6pm twinkling. 😍

Our second destination for Tuesday's sightseeing was the Eiffel Tower! Although this was B's and my third trip to Paris, we had never climbed the Eiffel Tower before. So that's what we wanted to do this time!

By the time we booked online several days in advance, we couldn't get tickets for either the elevator ride to the second level or to the very top (those are the two height options), but we were able to get stair-climbing tickets for the second level.

Given that we were visiting the Catacombs and the Eiffel Tower on the same afternoon, we faced this day with the following sum in mind:

131 stairs down into the Catacombs + 112 stairs up out of the Catacombs + 647 stairs up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower + 647 stairs back down again = 1591 stairs.

... Plus several hundred more going up and down our apartment stairs, into and out of various metro and train stations, and up onto the top level of the double-decker RER train we rode! So this was likely a 2000+ stair day for us. Thankfully only about half of them were upwards!!

Our first up-close view of the Eiffel Tower on our approach!
Soldiers patrolling outside the Eiffel Tower complex. Due to the threat of terrorism in recent years, there was a lot more security than on our previous visits.
The first of three security checks. Amazingly, there were no queues at any of them in spite of what we'd read beforehand! This was presumably because we hit the trifecta of weekday + 5pm timeslot + light rain.
The first level is behind F's head. The second level, which we'd be climbing to, is between the top of my head and B's.
It's huge!
One of the elevators. You can also see the stairs zigzagging up.
The start of the 647-step climb!
We'd never seen the Eiffel Tower from this angle before!
The first level was decorated beautifully for Christmas.
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After dark, the Eiffel Tower "twinkles" with 20000 lights for five minutes on the hour, every hour until 1am. This is the 5pm twinkling as seen from the first level!

Standing on a glass floor on the first level.
Looking down at the inside of the Tower from the first level.
Continuing up the stairs to the second level.
View from the stairs of the elevator going past. I thought the operator was real for a while!
The elevator track. Imagine climbing that ladder!!
Looking down at the first level.
We made it! The River Seine as seen from the second level of the Eiffel Tower.
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The 6pm twinkling, as seen from the second level!

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Heading back down... I took this photo through a 1cm-wide hole in the staircase floor.
These are the hydraulic drives for the elevators.
Made it back to ground level!
Goodbye, Eiffel Tower! See you next time!

We loved our visit to the Eiffel Tower. I heartily recommend going up the Tower, whether by elevator or stairs... it was an amazing end to our time in Paris/France/Europe and really quite magical! We'll have to go all the way to the top on our NEXT visit...

PS. We took it slow and the stairs were nowhere near as bad as we'd anticipated! We also walked about 11km this day!!

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