Paris - Saturday, 19 April 2014 (continued) - The Eiffel Tower (again)

Returning readers may recall that Grace had her heart set on going up the Eiffel Tower, and we tried to fob... err... substitute the Montparnasse Tower?  Well, it wasn’t a good enough substitution, so when I asked her today what she really wanted to do in Paris before we leave, she told me she wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower, and she wasn’t afraid of a queue. 

Lucky she wasn’t, because she and I queued with Xavier, in an ugly, irregular, snaking queue, for over two hours.  To be honest, for most of that time, I wasn’t even sure which leg of the tower we were in the queue for (the key difference being lifts all the way, or stairs to the 2^nd level and then lift to the top).  Grace valiantly amused Xavier with games and stories.  Then, just as we got to the metal barricaded section of the queue, approaching (but still half an hour away from) the ticket box, Andrew and Will arrived from Les Invalides, and we subbed Will into the queue and Xavier out to go home and have lunch and a nap.  Fortunately this substitution did not raise the ire of the people around us, unlike the real queue jumpers who were boldly and shamelessly seeking to insert themselves in the queue around us (although the assertive Englishwoman behind us evicted two groups of them). 

 

Finally, finally, finally, after two-and-a-half hours of queuing, we made it to the ticket box, and then, after passing through a second security check, we quickly ascended in the lift (yay!) up the Pilier Nord to the 2^nd floor...

 

 

...where we had to queue again for the lift to the top. 

Will wasn’t sure it was going to be worth it, but even he was delighted by the views when we stepped out of the lift at the Sommet.

I was so tired and cold by the time we got to the top, that we didn’t linger long before catching the lift back down to the 2nd floor, and then being sufficently motivated by the queue for the lift to the ground to take the stairs.

But it was enough to satisfy my daughter’s heart’s desire, and therefore mine.