Paris - The Eiffel Tower

Welcome to Citystalkers! I started this blog a while ago but didn't get down to writing anything. As is, we got a wedding gift of a Canon EOS Rebel. Read all about that here. And there was never a better excuse than having great pictures. Ok, so lets jump right in.

Wikitravel is probably going to give you the best offhand page that there is for most travel places. Check out their Paris page here. But I wanted this to be a more personalised memoir. And living in a place like Paris warrants more than just one blog for the entire place. So, I thought I would cover it landmark by landmark. So I made one of my umpteen trips to the Eiffel Tower while the husband was out cricketing.

The weather started great yesterday morning... But by the time I got to the Eiffel Tower, it was cloudy and a tad dull. I got off at Trocadero (Metro 6 from Charles de Gaulle Etoile) and walked to the quad that exposed the Tower. Just what I like to see -

It had the usual calming effect on me. The clouds had gathered by the time I walked down the entire plaza to the other side and here's a glorious picture from there -

And I fiddled with the ISO settings on it and everything but I am yet to figure out whats better.. After sitting there and taking in the breathtaking view, I walked down to the foot of the tower towards Rue Gustave Eiffel (naturally the Tower stands on a street that shares its name). The tower is 1039 feet tall which is a third of a kilometre... And it does get to your neck once you try to look up at it. Here's what it looks like from the foot of the tower -

Once past the crowds that snaked all along the entire quad that were trying to get on top of the tower.. Ooh.. this is one of the views from the top - the skyline of Paris -

There are tonnes more of the beautiful buildings and the River Seine... But then I think the view is spectacular on the other side of the Tower from Champ-de-Mars. The sun usually falls very well on this side of the Tower illuminating the iron rails and sort of making the Tower glow. Because it was sooo cloudy I had to wait well over 15 minutes for me to get the exact second of sunshine. Judge for yourself...

As I decided to leave, I caught sight of some shrubbery on the other side of the park. And so here's a slightly different look of the Iron lady (as the Eiffel Tower is popularly called) -

Though I think she is far prettier by day, she is certainly worth a watch by night... See why?

But anyone who knows me knows that lights sheerly excite me. And why not? After dark, the Eiffel Tower has a million bulbs going off every hour at the hour for nearly 10 minutes. Its a spectacle worth a watch and looks utterly fabulous..

10 minutes of breathtaking beauty....

After going through this blog, I realize that its more a photo blog rather than a travel blog.. But I justify that by saying that I live in Paris. :) So this collection of blogs are the home blog and are going to cover each landmark in pretty good detail. More of Paris in future blogs... Hope you enjoyed this one. To read all about the Eiffel Tower, visit this wiki page.