In Europe, we sit much farther north of the equator that we're used to in the US, so during the summer it stays light really late. On this particular evening, the sunset was at approximately 9:50, so as we were walking up to the tower we were treated to beautiful lighting like this:
If I could offer one tip about going to Paris (oooh, I think I'll do a top ten tips blog post!), it would be to book tickets in advance online for the Eiffel Tower. It doesn't cost extra and you don't have to stand in line like a sucker - you just show up a little before your designated time and go through a special line to get on the next elevator up. That's how vacations should be.
Anyway, as we got closer, we took more pictures....
Until it was finally time for us to go up the elevator to the second floor. The elevators are all open, so you can see you're going up really high the entire time. Once we got off the elevator, we made for the side of the building to capture the views with the waning light.
And then? Magic. Every evening starting at 10:00, and then each hour into the evening, the Eiffel Tower lights up in a spectacular fashion. Sparkly lights abound!!
We took a break and grabbed a few hot chocolates to have inside as the sun continued to set (and because it was getting a little chilly so high up) before heading out for some additional pictures.
Instead of taking the elevator back down, we opted instead to take the stairs down to the first and then ground floors. This was an excellent idea, because you can see the building up close and get a totally different perspective.
So fun! I would have loved to hang out there all day. They had a bar and restaurant and they're working on renovating the first floor (to include a glass floor!) You could walk around and read about the history of the building, Mr. Eiffel himself, and the building materials. It really has something for everyone: romance, history, and engineering.
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