The Eiffel Tower, by Rachel

The Eiffel Tower

By Rachel

Hello to all readers of the MOJO family blog! As you probably know, if you're a regular reader, we were in Paris from October 17th to October 19th. Paris was really cool; we went on a river cruise, saw the Louvre, and looked up at the Arc de Triomphe from right underneath. But by far the most spectacular experience was the Eiffel Tower. 

When we were first thinking about going on this trip, Meggan and Jason asked Ava and I where we'd like to go the most in the world. I don't remember what Ava said, but I said, "France!" They asked why, and I told them I really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower (and eat crepes and croissants, but that wasn't the priority). 

Anyway, you can imagine my excitement when we arrived in Paris to see the Tower in person...

We were staying in Versailles, which is a cheaper-to-stay-in city 15 minutes outside of Paris. On October 18th, we took the metro into Paris and got off at the station closest to the Eiffel Tower. I've always been excited to see the Tower, but it was weird; I'd been crazy excited for the past days, but on the day of, I felt totally normal. Like the calm before the storm, except in a good way. Then we excited the train station and walked towards the Tower. It already towered over us (no pun intended), and we were maybe a few hundred meters away. The thing was, it didn't look shiny and smooth and perfect like the Burj Khalifa. But that's part of the beauty, and it's just so amazing. 

Our original plan was to climb the Eiffel Tower the next morning, but we saw it just then, and none of us wanted to wait. I find it amazing that people can come to Paris and not climb it. I guess if you're afraid of heights, but still, there was nothing in the world that was going to stop me from climbing that tower to the very top. We bought our tickets and went through security, and then suddenly, we were right below the tower. It's got four legs that go up into one point at the top, and we were looking straight up at the Eiffel Tower. We started climbing, because you can take the Elevator the whole way, but it was more money, and we were all willing and able to walk. Why not?

I think it was maybe about halfway up the first flight of stairs that I fully realized what we were doing. I mean, I knew, of course, but the realization was sort of like, Oh wow, we're seriously climbing the Eiffel Tower! The actual EIFFEL TOWER, for goodness sake! I was really just stuck in amazement for almost that whole flight of stairs. I just kept thinking "wow" over and over again. Near the top of the first flight of stairs, I got over the original amazement, but I was still ridiculously happy about the whole thing. 

At the top of the first flight of stairs, there's a platform around a hole in the middle. We could see all the people buying their tickets and looking excited, but they were already small. There were cafes up on the platform, restaurants, that sort of thing. We didn't get anything, because they were ridiculously expensive, and also because we were anxious to be getting on up.

So we found the next flight of stairs and started climbing that one. Now, there are A LOT of stairs in the Eiffel Tower. I guess that might be a little obvious, but I wasn't really thinking about the stairs until the second flight of them, when I started thinking: Wow, this is a whole lot of stairs! I've backpacked for hours in the freezing cold rain and wind in Iceland, so this shouldn't have been that hard, in comparison. But stairs are their own mountains... and so my legs were turning to jelly by the time we got to the second platform.

The best thing about this platform was the view. It didn't have a whole in the middle, like the first one, but everywhere we looked, it was just amazing. The other thing was all the tourist attractions: "Oh, look, there's the Louvre! Yeah, and to the right, I can see the Arc de Triomphe!" It was pretty funny. There were no stairs to the top platform from here, so we patiently waited for our elevator ride to the top. 

I take that back. We were practically bouncing up and down with excitement. It was while waiting in this line that I used the Eiffel Tower wi-fi to text all my friends at home. "Texting you from the top of the Eiffel Tower!!!!!!" It was exciting. 

Our elevator took us to the top with surprising gentleness, and then thud. We landed at the top platform. The feeling when you get out of the elevator at the top of the Eiffel Tower is indescribable. I think we spent minutes staring at the view, just taking in the amazing... everything. The funny thing was that I felt so accomplished, which is a little weird, since I didn't do anything. 

Ava showing the USA cities noted and their direction / how far away they are

Mommy under the Canadian sign for Calgary

If you ever go to Paris, I hope you climb the Eiffel Tower.

We then got on a boat and were able to see the tower from the water. Then by the time the boat came back, it was dark and we were able to see the tower lit up.