Littlest has known about the Eiffel Tower since she was about 18 months old and saw it on the kid show Little Einsteins. She’s known it’s in Paris, France, and she’s been wanting to see it since we moved here and we told her Paris was about a 4 hour car ride from our house. She was even more excited when she learned that we were staying only a few blocks from it.
When we got close to the apartment where we were staying, this was one of the views of the Eiffel Tower, and I let Littlest have my phone – and this is the picture she took.
We couldn’t see it from our apartment building because other buildings were too high, but a couple of blocks down we had this view of it from a good restaurant we enjoyed.
Needless to say…she was SO EXCITED to go up in the tower. And of course we went all the way to the top!
We had been told that the evening/night trip up the tower was better so you could see Paris lit up at night. And I have say it didn’t disappoint. I wish my camera could have captured the scene better.
We had 5:30pm tickets to go up into the tower, so the sun was just beginning to set when we arrived.
We waited for the elevator because we had purchased tickets in advance so the line and wait weren’t very long. I’m scared of heights, and the girls wanted to be up against the glass to look out while we went up….and let me tell you….very crowded elevator + going stories and stories up in the air + fear of heights = NERVOUS SWEATING FOR MOM! But not for Littlest! Look at that expression and excitement on her face!
View from the second observation deck.
We had tickets to go all the way to the Summit, so once we looked around at the view from all angles on the second deck, we got in line to go up again. While we waited in line for the Summit, it got dark, and they lit up the Tower. It was beautiful.
So I thought I was nervous going up to the second deck…but I was wrong. Going to the summit was just plain SCARY! But I took a deep breath and put a smile on my face because my baby girl was having the time of her life!
And once I took a few deep breaths, and really looked at the view around me…it was breathtaking (in a good way)! It was a clear night, and not too cold. This scene just really captivated me.
From the second observation deck to the Summit, there are only elevators, so we waited for our turn to go back down. We got back off on the 2nd deck and took the stairs down to the 1st observation deck, which has souvenirs, food, bathrooms, etc. They girls had been wanting a little statue of the Eiffel Tower since arriving in Paris, and MyMan and I kept saying no, and making them wait. I told them, what could be better than getting an Eiffel Tower IN the Eiffel Tower? So they each got a small Tower for their rooms and they were very happy about that.
Once we left the Tower, we decided to catch a river boat cruise. We had heard good things about them, they were conveniently located nearby where we already were, and it sounded really nice to get off our feet for an hour and cruise the river with a drink in our hand! So we made our way to the river.
I didn’t take any photos while we were on the river tour because it was nighttime. But from where we were seated on the boat, we had a very good view of the Eiffel Tower, and we could see it nicely lit up. After they light it up at night, it sparkles for ~5 minutes every hour on the hour (I’m not sure how long into the night that goes on). But we managed to catch it before the boat took of, and I was able to get some video.
This was probably Littlest’s favorite part of the trip!
From Here to There - A Move Across an Ocean 