HOW TO: See the Eiffel Tower
You’d think this would be an easy one, right? Hop, skip and a jump to Paris and you can see the luminous tower from almost anywhere, day or night. This is true of course, you can see it from almost every point of the city compass in Paris as it looms over parks, buildings and canals. However in my eyes there are only three perfect ways to witness one of the most talked about, man made objects of all time; The Eiffel Tower.
From the ground up is obviously the first choice but this all depends on the time of day that you decide to go, as well as the season. Crowds are always a killer, no matter rain, hail or shine so never let yourself think for a second that you’ll be alone with Miss Eiffel, it’s just not a thing. The first time I laid eyes on her, I was nine and it was pouring down with rain in the middle of autumn. It was marvellous. It was an Odyssey at the time to even see her, gutters were storming with water, I wasn’t wearing closed shoes, and the lights had been switched off for the evening eradicating any potential for a magical moment. To be honest, I didn’t care about any of that, I had only wished to see her for so long that nothing could have dampened my nine year old heart, nothing. Understandably, one might not want their first visit to The Tower to be like mine that is why I haven’t included it in my top three. What I will recommend is this; you can’t go wrong in summertime. Yes, the crowds as I have said are a killer, but the gardens are alive with May flowers and freshly mowed green grass that glistens as the surrounding fountains spray the youth of Paris with sprinkling water. It truly is iconic. Everyone is there and it feels like a bucket list moment.
If this doesn’t take your fancy then you must be a midnight type of traveller. At the age of 18 I revisited Miss Eiffel at the strike of midnight as she lit up with blue, fluorescent lights. There was still a small crowd but it was cold, a slight wind making it feel as if she could sway against the rhythm of the sparkling lights, never quite falling. I recommend laying down in the surrounding gardens, quite close to the legs of the tower, and staring straight up to the very top. It’s a feeling of having total power and powerlessness all at the same time, exhilarating and less tourist-like.
Last but not least, you go nowhere near the Eiffel at all. Stay as far away as possible in a suburb known to host another famous building, Montparnasse. There are no lines here, no queues, no busying tourists with their cameras and satchels. You climb stairs and take a short elevator ride to the top and before you is the entire cityscape of Paris, including in the distance and not too hard to see, Miss Eiffel Tower, standing proud as the sun begins to fall behind her. This was the last time I saw her, an orange haze surrounded the edges as the sky lit up slowly with stars. Why climb to the top of the Eiffel just to see the city when you can climb to the top of Montparnasse and see both? Exactly.
