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Eiffel Reprise
Sunday, April 18, 2004
You were patient. You waited two whole days for more of the grand Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel). And here it is.
This was the second shot I took as I approached the tower from the train station. It was about 3:50 p.m., and the goose bumps were still prickling my skin at this point.
This shot gives you a sense of the scale of the thing. Look at the lady walking on the grass (a definite no-no, which I was tempted to do, but resisted, since I saw gendarmes in the offing.) She had just taken a shot of the tower, and she walked away just before I could get my camera ready to shoot her in the act of shooting. Would have been a perfect picture. But at least you can use her to judge the dimensions of the tower's base.
While I was waiting in line I noticed a statue in the distance (I think it's of Gustave Eiffel. Can't imagine that it would be a bust of Jacques Chirac or Maurice Chevalier in this location, can you?). Anyway, I thought it was pretty disrespectful of this pigeon to select the distinguished gentleman's head for his resting place. And while he was there, who knows what presents he may have left behind. Oh, well....
When the shot on the right was taken, I had been in line almost an hour, and at this point the line was snaking through a Disney-type S-loop, or whatever they call it. The folks on the right in this picture were like most others, staring up at the tower from time to time. But I'm not quite sure what to make of the lady in the cap on the left. Did she miss a memo or something? The tower was behind her! What was she looking at? We'll never know.
You probably haven't noticed, but I kinda like shooting into the sun, so when we got to this point, I just held up the line for a while as I angled for the perfect shot of "le soleil et la tour", along with the prices. As you'll notice, you pay most to go to the top. Hard to imagine someone coming to this landmark and only going up to the first level (premier etage) or the second (deuxieme etage). But, to each his own, I guess.
The little girl in the photo on the right had the best of all worlds. She was up high on Daddy's shoulders, got a comfortable ride, and she didn't have to stand in line. One day she'll look back on this and long for the good old days.
Finally, the trophy! My very own billette, that entitled me to ascend. It was now 5:00 o'clock (well, 4:59 if you want to be exact), and I'd started in line at 4:00. Lots of waiting on this day. One reason, I think, was that it was a gorgeous day, with lots of sun and very comfortable temperatures. So a lot of people took the opportunity to do the tour.
This spectacular view shows the Champs de Mars leading to the Ecole Militaire (Military Academy). This was taken from the second level, where we had to change elevators for the final ascent to the top. As you'd expect, there were many folks waiting to go on up, so it took about 45 minutes to start the final leg of the ascent.
On this level, I noticed a very unusual gentleman at the ticket window. He seemed to be wearing some kind of apparatus on his head. It didn't seem like a conventional helmet, or anything I'd seen before. But he seemed to wear it with ease, and it didn't seem to slow him down any, although heavens knows how he saw where he was going. Mysterious.
The guy in the second picture wanted a shot of himself, so he approached a nearby window and requested a reflection. The wish was granted and here's the result. Somebody needs to tell him to stop shooting into the sun, though. It makes some of the people in the picture look like they're walking around headless.
When we got to the top, I thought we'd exit onto a platform of some kind. But instead we entered a windowed room that encircled the top of the tower, kinda like in an airport control tower. Among the interesting information presented was the distance to certain cities around the world, like Mexico, Washington and New York. I looked for Orlando, but no dice.
I did, however, find another famous city, located a mere 7,734 kilometers from Paris. I remember it well. In fact, I plan to visit it again in the next few months, if I can.
Now who do you suppose this might be? None other than Gustave Eiffel in the flesh, or should I say in the wax (or whatever material they choose for such presentations). He's shown in his office, with his daughter, Claire. It seems he had an office right here in the tower, where he would welcome prominent guests.
On the occasion shown here, he was entertaining American inventor Thomas Edison, who presented Eiffel with a model of his phonograph, which Edison had just recently demonstrated at the 1888 Universal Exposition.
----------
I was going to end the show here for the night, since I need to get some rest before teaching Monday, but it seemed you needed to have at least one shot from the top, so here it is.
This is a view to the northeast, showing the Seine and four of its 37 bridges. In the center right is the domed, glass-roofed Grand Palais (large palace), which was originally built as a temporary gallery for the 1900 World's Fair. It's now used for exhibitions of various kinds, and is undergoing renovation, some of which you can probably see. just to its right of it is the Petit Palais (small palace) built for the same purpose, and now housing a museum of fine arts.
Well, I've shown you only a fraction of the shots I took (did I mention I have 253?), but time and space won't allow any more, so I must bid you au revoir for now.
Check the archives if you missed anything. TTYL.
This was the second shot I took as I approached the tower from the train station. It was about 3:50 p.m., and the goose bumps were still prickling my skin at this point.
This shot gives you a sense of the scale of the thing. Look at the lady walking on the grass (a definite no-no, which I was tempted to do, but resisted, since I saw gendarmes in the offing.) She had just taken a shot of the tower, and she walked away just before I could get my camera ready to shoot her in the act of shooting. Would have been a perfect picture. But at least you can use her to judge the dimensions of the tower's base.
 |  |
While I was waiting in line I noticed a statue in the distance (I think it's of Gustave Eiffel. Can't imagine that it would be a bust of Jacques Chirac or Maurice Chevalier in this location, can you?). Anyway, I thought it was pretty disrespectful of this pigeon to select the distinguished gentleman's head for his resting place. And while he was there, who knows what presents he may have left behind. Oh, well....
When the shot on the right was taken, I had been in line almost an hour, and at this point the line was snaking through a Disney-type S-loop, or whatever they call it. The folks on the right in this picture were like most others, staring up at the tower from time to time. But I'm not quite sure what to make of the lady in the cap on the left. Did she miss a memo or something? The tower was behind her! What was she looking at? We'll never know.
 |  |
You probably haven't noticed, but I kinda like shooting into the sun, so when we got to this point, I just held up the line for a while as I angled for the perfect shot of "le soleil et la tour", along with the prices. As you'll notice, you pay most to go to the top. Hard to imagine someone coming to this landmark and only going up to the first level (premier etage) or the second (deuxieme etage). But, to each his own, I guess.
The little girl in the photo on the right had the best of all worlds. She was up high on Daddy's shoulders, got a comfortable ride, and she didn't have to stand in line. One day she'll look back on this and long for the good old days.
 |  |
Finally, the trophy! My very own billette, that entitled me to ascend. It was now 5:00 o'clock (well, 4:59 if you want to be exact), and I'd started in line at 4:00. Lots of waiting on this day. One reason, I think, was that it was a gorgeous day, with lots of sun and very comfortable temperatures. So a lot of people took the opportunity to do the tour.
This spectacular view shows the Champs de Mars leading to the Ecole Militaire (Military Academy). This was taken from the second level, where we had to change elevators for the final ascent to the top. As you'd expect, there were many folks waiting to go on up, so it took about 45 minutes to start the final leg of the ascent.
 |  |
On this level, I noticed a very unusual gentleman at the ticket window. He seemed to be wearing some kind of apparatus on his head. It didn't seem like a conventional helmet, or anything I'd seen before. But he seemed to wear it with ease, and it didn't seem to slow him down any, although heavens knows how he saw where he was going. Mysterious.
The guy in the second picture wanted a shot of himself, so he approached a nearby window and requested a reflection. The wish was granted and here's the result. Somebody needs to tell him to stop shooting into the sun, though. It makes some of the people in the picture look like they're walking around headless.
 |  |
When we got to the top, I thought we'd exit onto a platform of some kind. But instead we entered a windowed room that encircled the top of the tower, kinda like in an airport control tower. Among the interesting information presented was the distance to certain cities around the world, like Mexico, Washington and New York. I looked for Orlando, but no dice.
I did, however, find another famous city, located a mere 7,734 kilometers from Paris. I remember it well. In fact, I plan to visit it again in the next few months, if I can.
Now who do you suppose this might be? None other than Gustave Eiffel in the flesh, or should I say in the wax (or whatever material they choose for such presentations). He's shown in his office, with his daughter, Claire. It seems he had an office right here in the tower, where he would welcome prominent guests.
On the occasion shown here, he was entertaining American inventor Thomas Edison, who presented Eiffel with a model of his phonograph, which Edison had just recently demonstrated at the 1888 Universal Exposition.
----------
I was going to end the show here for the night, since I need to get some rest before teaching Monday, but it seemed you needed to have at least one shot from the top, so here it is.
This is a view to the northeast, showing the Seine and four of its 37 bridges. In the center right is the domed, glass-roofed Grand Palais (large palace), which was originally built as a temporary gallery for the 1900 World's Fair. It's now used for exhibitions of various kinds, and is undergoing renovation, some of which you can probably see. just to its right of it is the Petit Palais (small palace) built for the same purpose, and now housing a museum of fine arts.
Well, I've shown you only a fraction of the shots I took (did I mention I have 253?), but time and space won't allow any more, so I must bid you au revoir for now.
Check the archives if you missed anything. TTYL.
