This has to be one of my favorite monuments. It’s not that I was looking forward to climbing it, but I just think it symbolizes the city (if not the country) so well. Similar to the Statue of Liberty in New York (technically another French monument), and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Eiffel Tower is Paris. It was designed and built by Gustav Eiffel for the Universal Exhibition of 1889 (which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution). It stands about 1000 feet tall with the highest viewing platform (level 3) at around 900 feet. We climbed to the second level, which at 704 steps was close to the limit for little Ella. At night, the parks that surround the tower become filled with folks enjoying a picnic. Later on at 10, 11, midnight, and 1, they light up the tower for 5 minutes with 20,000 flashing lights. We caught the early show (10pm) even though it’s not quite dark yet. The kids seem to always find a late boost of energy to run off, but that’s still pretty late by the time we walked home and got in bed.
