Day 9: Eiffel Tower

Today we strolled along the river to the Eiffel Tower (click for web site) and rode up the tower.  There are 3 "levels" - we stopped at the second and the third (the top).  It wasn't too terribly crowded, but we still had to wait in line about 20 minutes to go from level 2 to level 3.  One thing I didn't know about the tower, it was actually intended to be temporary when it was built in 1889 for a world expo.  But when it was supposed to be torn down, they first postponed the decision, and later a petition to keep it up permanently made the rounds and was successful.  (Though there were people who thought it was ugly and really wanted it torn down.)  The tower is over 900 feet tall.

First some views of the tower:

The glass structure in the foreground below is a temporary peace memorial.  The word "peace" was written in dozens of different languages, both across the glass and on the cylindrical poles.

The pictures below were taken from level 2.  This is looking away from the river - at the far end of the lawns is a military school (the equivalent of West Point):

Below is (obviously) looking along the river.  There was a soccer game going on in the field in the foreground.  Our hotel is in the cluster of buildings near the top left of the picture.  Also, we took several strolls along the tree-lined island you can see running between two of the bridges in the Seine River (Ile de la Cygne).  It was a very relaxing place to walk, though it seemed to be the local dog-owner hangout, and they certainly don't have pick-up-your-dog's-refuse laws (or at least they aren't enforced), so you really had to watch where you were stepping.  Yuck.

Looking across the river to Trocadero, which houses several museums and theaters:

Here is Isako, gripping onto the cage on the second floor for dear life!

Now we rode up to level 3, the very top of the tower.  Here again you can see the soccer field, and the group of buildings where our hotel was:

Here is Trocadero again, and the tall buildings far in the distance are in La Defense, an area of many modern office buildings that we visited later.  The green area in front of the tall buildings, and extending to the left, is Bois de Boulogne, a very large park just outside the city center.

Isako did make it to the top floor.  She mainly stayed in the enclosed level, but she did venture out to the open area for a bit, but not long enough to pose for a photo!

Here you can see the Arc de Triomphe, in the center of the frame: