We went to the Eiffel Tower to check it out. It goes without saying that it is a very unique and impressive structure. We walked around the base of the tower and took a few pictures.

One picture that I found interesting was standing on the ground right in the middle of the tower looking up.

There was a fair amount of people at the Eiffel tower and there was a line up for the elevators to go up the tower. Shelley and I noticed one base of the tower which had very few people in the line up, so we went and checked it out. This line up was for taking the stairs and walking up to the second level of the tower.

We decided why not take the stairs, so we bought our tickets and started the climb up the Eiffel tower stairs.

The stairs are numbered and as you go up you get a sense of how many stairs you have climbed. There are a total of 700 stairs to get to the second level.

The higher you go up the stairs the more challenging it becomes. The stairs are fenced in to ensure no one “falls” off. The higher you go up the smaller  the people on the ground appear. When you look sideways on the stairs you can see the buildings becoming smaller.

I am not afraid of heights and I was comfortable with the climb. Shelley was having some difficulty with the stairs because of the open concept and views of the ground and sky. At around the 400 stair mark Shelley decided that was enough for her and headed back down to the ground. After making sure she was ok and with me going ahead I carried on and climbed the rest of the stairs to the second level. You could get great views of Paris from there. Below is a view of the Champ de Mars park.

I walked around the second level and admired the views before heading back down the stairs.

Back on the ground we decided we would walk back to the hotel through the Park of Champ de Mars.

We had a full day and enjoyed the Eiffel tower but also we enjoyed the walk back through the park.

“au revoir et bonne journée”