I am in a relationship with the Eiffel Tower. I love her. When I am out and about on visits around Paris I can use the tower as a compass to find my way home. I know it’s bed time when I see the reflection of the tower’s fairy lights in the windows of the building opposite start blinking at 11pm.
Parisians sometimes refer to the Eiffel Tower as the Iron Lady of Paris. That won’t do. If I think Iron Lady I think Margaret Thatcher and I’m sure if the tower took on human form it wouldn’t be Margaret Thatcher. The Arc du Triomphe could be Margaret Thatcher – with its hardness and lack of warmth – but not the Eiffel Tower. Although the Eiffel Tower was constructed to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution, she is very regal – rather Princess Grace or a young QE2.
Most mornings I begin my day with a walk to the tower and a lap of the Champs du Mars. Once a week or so I walk up the 669 stairs to level 2 for some exercise. A couple of times I’ve walked up and down the stairs between levels 1 and 2 three times to get a workout. People look at me very strangely when I do this. I have seen people jogging up the stairs so I’m not the only one using the Eiffel Tower for my gym.
I enjoy looking down at the silly people queuing for up to two hours to get into one of the tower’s lifts. There’s rarely a long wait to use the stairs and I can get up the stairs to the level two platform in 10 minutes.
One day, along with a friend visiting me from London, I walked the steps of the tower twice in one day so we could see the views by day and night.
My love for the Eiffel Tower reached new dizzying heights when my partner – who flew from Melbourne to join me – and I went to dinner at 58 Le tour Eiffel, the restaurant on the tower’s first level. It was spectacular. I ate popcorn soup. It was a cold sweet corn soup that had pieces of popcorn in it. I chose it because it was something different and it was delicious.
Our meal on the tower was a bit of decadence but how often do you get to eat dinner on the Eiffel Tower? There was a sweet young American couple next to us who I gathered had saved their money to enjoy this great treat. I doubt they were much more than 20 years old. I heard the boy say to his friend ‘when I’m old I can say I had dinner on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.’
Good on him. He has the right idea. Once you experience beautiful things nobody can take them away from you no matter how the rest of your life turns out. I know I’ll always remember eating popcorn soup on the Eiffel Tower.
Earlier in my trip I ticked off an item high on my ‘bucket list’; to stand at the top of the Eiffel Tower in all four seasons. I only had spring to go. I was by myself on a Sunday morning and didn’t get a picture to prove it but I know I was there and I’ve scored that big bucket list tick.
I think now I’ll have to keep coming back so I can do the tower by night in all four seasons – only winter, autumn and summer to go. This will of course require at least three more trips to Paris.
Travels With My Teddy Archive.
In May 2011 I had the good fortune to spend a month living in Paris. I rented a small apartment in the 7th arrondissement about 15 minutes’ walk from the Eiffel Tower. During this stay I fell completely in love with the tower. When I concentrate really hard I can still taste the popcorn soup.