News From the Top

So there we were on the second platform, getting in the line for the elevators to the top (lucky for me there were no more stairs open to the public at this point!). Now, Tenzig hates crowds as much as I am afraid of heights, maybe even more, so it was his turn to grin and bear it. The line seemed endless as it snaked across the platform, around and under the great girders of the tower. We were penned in between metal railings, rubbing elbows with the people ahead of us. Tenzig gritted his teeth. Finally we made it into the elevator, with a family with a screaming ten year old girl. Not cute. We were immensely relieved to get out onto the uppermost viewing platform and away from her piercing cries. Being on top of the Eiffel Tower is a lot like being on top of the Empire State Building. You're high but not too high, there is a 360 degree view of the city below, and people are milling around taking pictures and trying to make sure they see everything there is to see. Also like the Empire State, you are at the mercy of the atmosphere: a humid hazy day - no view, dry and clear - you can see for miles. Our view was the former, the sky was still uncertain about whether it would rain or not, so a blanket of mist hung low over the city. We could see the immediate city below but just a few miles away, the details of the Sacre Coeur on Montmartre were obscured.


We milled around with our fellow visitors (I saw that the crying girl from the elevator had calmed down), taking in the view from each side until we had our fill. Looking down I began to wish that we had approached the Tower from the Champ de Mars instead of from the river, so that we could have benefited from the full majestic presentation of the gardens laid out at its feet. But we hadn't, so we had to be satisfied with the view from the top. When we were ready, we took the elevator back down to the first floor to the post office. Tenzig is a lot more organized than I am about sending postcards home to friends and family. He is always determined to send them on the first day so he was carrying a list of addresses with him when we were at the tower. We both bought cards in the post office but only Tenzig was able to fill his out and mail them from right there where the post office attendant applied a special "Paris Tour Eiffel" postmark. I was very jealous. We didn't eat at any of the restaurants at the tower, but I wish that we had. The next time we go back I am determined to eat at the Jules Verne, it's expensive but it's one of those things I'd like to experience because it's a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, because it's named after Jules Verne, because it was in a James Bond movie, basically just because. So, until then...