An Eyeful of Eiffel

I was last in Paris back in the mid-80s when I was interrailing around Europe. I was on an extremely low budget and couldn’t afford to go up the Eiffel Tower; instead I stood underneath and gazed up through its iron girders.

When I found out I was going to be spending a couple of days in Paris at the end of December I toyed with the idea of finally ascending the Tower, but realised it was unlikely to happen unless I wanted to spend most of my time in Paris standing in a queue.

The first thing I did when I arrived was to check it out, wondering if perhaps the recent terror attacks had scared the queues away, but no, the line was still about half a day long.

I did get plenty of good views of it though, including the iconic view from the top of the Montparnasse Tower.

I’ve put together a Flickr album of my images and images of images of the Eiffel Tower. (No, I haven’t said images too many times there).

I’ve also decided I’m not going to leave it another 30 years before I go back to Paris and that next time I’ll book a time slot well in advance.

 

An Eyeful of Eiffel

Sailing along the Seine

A boat trip along the Seine was the perfect start to a day in Paris.

Having spent a long time living in London, I’m now of the belief that a proper city has to have a river running through it.

A big river.

A river that can be called the lifeblood of the city.

As London has the Thames, so Paris has the Seine. Of course, I gravitated towards it.

I saw some very crowded tour boats chugging up and down, but it was later in the day and the tourists were out in force. The following morning I made sure I was up in time to get on the first trip of the day when it was much quieter. The light was nicer too.

The trip gave me a good overview, but now I’m thinking of how nice it would be to go back and do a long a walk along the banks and explore properly.

I really enjoy walking the Thames Path (even if, after 15 years, I’m still only about a third of way along it). I wonder if there’s a Seine Path?

I’ve put my photos into a Flickr album. Click on the photo below to access it.

 

Sailing along the Seine

Paris – the aftermath

I’d already booked my trip to Paris when the attacks happened. Of course I was asked if I was still intending to go (by people who don’t know me very well) and when I said ‘yes’, asked if I was scared (by people who know me even less well). Until people started asking, the idea of cancelling hadn’t even occurred to me.

Having lived in London through two IRA campaigns, lived on the Lebanese border of Israel during the first Intifada and lived in Kinshasa during the build-up to an attempted coup to oust Mobutu, I’m not easily railroaded onto the fear wagon.

There are two kinds of risk in life: foolhardy and calculated. Although Damascus has always been high on my wishlist of places to visit, I’m not planning any trips in the forseeable future. But Paris? Come on, really?

Here are my reasons for why I considered Paris to be the safest and best possible place to visit over the Christmas and New Year period.

  • As one of the largest cities in the EU and with a population of nearly two and a quarter million, the statistical chances of my being involved in a terrorist attack were miniscule.
  • Paris had already had ‘its’ attacks. If others were to happen they’d be far more likely to be elsewhere.
  • Because it was so soon after the attacks security would be really high making it much less likely for further attacks to succeed.
  • As so many people were cancelling the city would be much quieter than usual, meaning less queues and possibly reduced prices.
  • I don’t want to live a life governed by fear. I don’t want to let extremists (of any persuasion) dictate what I do and don’t do. I don’t want to add to the ‘success’ of their atrocities by adapting my life, particularly when it’s to the detriment of the city affected. The BBC reported that 7% of the French economy and two million jobs are reliant on the tourism industry, so the sharp drop in hotel bookings immediately after the attacks and the knock-on effects on shops, restaurants, taxis and tourist attractions, has a serious impact.

So how did I find things once I was actually in Paris?

Soldiers at the Christmas market
Soldiers at the Christmas market – I especially like the one in red!

The presence of armed soldiers on the streets was unusual for a European city. I don’t think I’ve seen this since Belfast during The Troubles. Even during the IRA campaigns in London I remember only occasionally seeing armed police on the streets and never soldiers.

soldiers at the Eiffel Tower
Soldiers at the Eiffel Tower

I felt the soldiers were there more as a public reassurance measure than for any practical reason. Adding ‘friendly’ machine gun fire to any terrorist incident could increase the death toll rather than reduce it. And it would be unlikely to deter a suicide bomber from detonating their bomb, let alone prevent a car bomb from going off.

Soldiers on the Champs Elysees
Soldiers on the Champs Elysees

Many of the posher shops along the Champs Elysees had security guards outside who were carrying out bag searches and waving a security wand over customers before allowing them to enter. Again, I wasn’t sure how much of a preventative measure this was as anyone with a bomb or gun could just as easily started their attack outside the shop as inside.

Security checks outside Louis Vuitton
Security checks outside Louis Vuitton

The November attacks happened inside crowded stadiums and theatres. I can see how security checks outside these places may have prevented the attacks or at least scaled them down. But a shop on a busy street? Particulary a shop with a queue of sitting ducks lining up outside? Would it really make much difference if it happened inside or outside? I think not, but even so, it was still kind of reassuring to see.

As for my non-altruistic reason for visiting Paris at this time – less queues and lower prices – did I find a difference? Well, due to security checks some queues were longer than they previously would have been and the Eiffel Tower still had a queue that it was estimated would take about half a day to get to the front of. At other attractions however, less tourists did make it quicker and easier. As I wasn’t familiar with Parisian prices beforehand, and we’d already booked and paid for our hotel, I don’t actually know if it was any cheaper or not.

Queueing at Abercrombie and Fitch
Queueing at Abercrombie and Fitch

What I do know was that I enjoyed my time in Paris, felt completely safe and would happily return (though maybe when I’ve booked the Eiffel Tower well in advance).

 

 

 

Montparnasse Tower

Montparnasse Tower from the Eiffel Tower
Montparnasse Tower viewed from the Eiffel Tower

I’ve never been up the Eiffel Tower. Many years ago when I interrailed around Europe my budget was so low all I could afford to do was to stand underneath it and gaze up through its iron girders.

Having a slightly higher budget this time round, I did consider ascending but thought the queues would put me off. As I was only going to be in Paris for a short time I didn’t want to spend half a day standing in a line.

Montparnasse Tower
Montparnasse Tower by day

As lots of tourists are reported to have cancelled trips to Paris since the November terrorist attacks, I did wonder if this would mean less queues than usual. On our first morning in Paris we headed straight for the Tower to find out. But no, the long snaking line still meant a wait of several hours. Not to worry, we had a Plan B.

The Montparnasse Tower is lesser known than its rival even though it has one huge advantage. The iconic view of Paris has to include the Eiffel Tower. When you are at the top of the Eiffel Tower you get a great view of Paris, but of course it’s missing that one thing that turns a great view into an iconic view.

View of the Eiffel Tower
That iconic view

We timed our trip to the top of the Montparnasse Tower for late afternoon / early evening so we could take in the view in daylight, watch the sun go down and then see night-time Paris lit up below us.

view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse TowerThe tower is easy to get to – Montparnasse Bienvenue Metro Station is right outside. There was only a short queue to buy a ticket (another advantage over the Eiffel Tower) and then we passed through airport style security to get to the lifts.

The lifts are among the fastest in the world and, reaching speeds of 22kmph, zoomed us up to the 56th floor in 38 seconds.

The 56th floor consists of a shop, restaurant and indoor viewing gallery. We didn’t want to stay here though; we wanted to be at the very top. We climbed the stairs to reach the 59th floor roof terrace.

Roof terrace The roof terraceThe roof terrace covers the entire roof and although there are glass walls around the sides, there are gaps which make it easier to get clear photographs.

I wandered from end to end and from side to side taking in the 360° view of Paris. The most popular side was, of course, the one with the view of the Eiffel Tower.

view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse TowerAs the sun went down and the city’s lights began to sparkle the Eiffel Tower started to twinkle.

view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Tower view from the Montparnasse Towerview from the Montparnasse Tower

Once it’s fully dark the Eiffel Tower puts on a whole flashy, twinkly lightshow for a few minutes each hour.

We sat on comfy seats gazing at the view for a while longer before starting to feel the cold and heading back down to the 56th floor for a warming cup of hot chocolate.

View from Montparnasse Tower
View from my comfy chair
Montparnasse Tower
Montparnasse Tower by night

The website for the Montparnasse Tower is here.

It costs €15 per adult.