Le Tour Eiffel

Upon going to bed Sunday night, we told ourselves we’d be up and at ‘em early Monday morning to beat the Eiffel Tower crowds! That didn’t happen. We got to the Tower probably around 11 and I could see what looked like two entry lines, both of them double-spanning the width of the square where you wait to buy tickets. Not too bad, I thought. Until I realized it was one line. But hey, what can you do! We waited there for about 20 minutes until Mark saw a different, shorter line at the other side of the square and went to investigate. That shorter line was actually the line to walk up the stairs to the first and second level of the Tower instead of waiting for the elevator. Plus it was cheaper! So we moved to the walking line.

Now that I’ve established we’re in line, let me back up a day and a half (bear with me): on the flight from New York to Paris, I sat next to a girl from Australia named Millie. We chatted and became buds but didn’t make plans to hang out while in Paris since none of us had phones. So when we parted at the airport, we expected to never see her again.

So, back to the line. As we stood there chatting, we heard a loud “OH. MY. GOD.” And who was standing in line in front of us but MILLIE, who was obviously just as shocked as we were. I mean, it’s a huge city with tons of attractions! And we just happened to meet up at one of them at the same time in the walking line. By accident. So we climbed the Eiffel Tower together and hung out the rest of the day. A perk of having another friend with us was that we had someone to take our picture! It’s funny to look through all our pictures because most of them just have one of us or perhaps both at arms-length, but on this day we have plenty of the two of us from a normal distance.

Millie and me

I was amazed by just how huge the Eiffel Tower is. It’s about the same height as an 81-story building! You can walk up to the first and second levels of the Tower, but if you want to go to the top then you have to take the elevator. We’d heard some friends say that you don’t have to go to the top to get the full experience but we figured that since we were already there, we might as well!