30th May 2007
The Eiffel Tower for Vertigo sufferers
No visit to Paris would be complete without going within touching distance of the Eiffel Tower so let me tell you about the experience we had.
Firstly I was travelling with two young children with the attention span of a gold fish. It seems that whatever time you go the queue is going to be horrendous - we got into the snaking queue at 2pm and bought our tickets at 3:30 ... there is a nice restaurant on the 2nd level 'La Jules Verne' which if you are going to eat there means you can jump the queue but for most of us we had to wait...so if you are going with kids make sure you bring water and a guide book to keep them amused with trivial facts etc....or a game boy.
There are 3 levels, the first 2 are accessable from the lift in any of the 4 legs - there doesn't seem to be a leg with a shorter queue (we did look). The trip up the first 2 levels was wierd - the elevator is more like a fenicular railway in that you are travelling upwards and sideways at the same time - very wierd.
On the second level there is a shopping area around the centre with the usual high priced tat that I had to convince my over stimulated kids didn't have to be bought just because it was there - saying 'dad's out of cash' stops being credible once you have bought them lunch. Oh lunch, bring a packed one if you can as it's expensive and limited - by that read chips and ropey old filled baguettes.
So we joined the queue for the top - if you don't like heights then don't do this - just looking up to the top level (you will have time in the queue to do plenty of that) scared the hell out of me and I had to be brave for the kids.....the lift when we got there was quite modern and quick but you need to remember that the Eiffel tower is an old, creaky, rusting monument that lets you know that you shouldn't be defying gravity by going up it.
The top was nice, that but that I could see without letting go of the kids or the iron bars against the middle - the lift down felt very good indeed :) Not that I had my eyes open at the time.
At the prompting of my oldest we decided to walk down from the 2nd to the 1st level - agree to this at your peril, you are still 150m up and it's a windy and very unsafe looking way down.
All in all this is the most visited monument in the world - you simply must do it once in your life, perhaps for less 'vertically aware' people than me it would be thrilling but as far as i am concernend it's one you do and then file away as being a nice memory.
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