The last day in Europe. I hadn't been up the Eiffel Tower in quite a few years, and it was a pretty clear day, to I decided to take a trip up.
The Eiffel Tower is an iron-lattice tower started in 1887 as the entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair.
It was designed by Gustave Eiffel, and was the tallest free-standing structure in the world until the Chrysler building in New York in 1930. The Tower was protested by architects and artists,
including William Adolphe Bouguereau and Guy de Maupassant as "useless and monstrous", and a "hateful column of bolted sheet metal" that would take away from the great Paris landmarks,
such as the Louvre and Hotel d'Invalides. Eiffel was given a 20 year window to exploit the Tower commercially, and it was to be torn down in 1909, but survived due to its usefullness as a communications tower.
There are 3 levels one can visit. The second level has the best views of the city, with the quite windy top view allows one to see for miles if it's clear enough, which it often isn't.
After that, it was off to the Champs-Élysées and the Louis Vuitton free art exhibition, which turned out to be the right price.
To end the day, a walk along the Seine River near the Louvre, Notre Dame and Latin Quarter area.
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Above: The north-west view to the Trocadero from Level 2 of the Eiffel Tower.
Pictures 1 to 3 are views by the Trocadero square and Champs de Mars park by the Eiffel Tower
Pictures 4 to 11 are views from Level 2 on the Eiffel Tower, including ...
Picture 4 north to the Seine River
Picture 5 northeast to the palace, L'Hôtel national des Invalides
Pictures 6 and 7, southeast along the Champs de Mars
Pictures 8 is the view southwest along the Seine River
Pictures 9 is looking west into Paris - the green strip to a few kilometres back is the Bois de Boulogne, a huge public park
Pictures 10, the view northwest to Place du Trocadéro, named for a French military victory over the Spain in 1823, and the Palais de Chaillot
Pictures 11, Dr. J protected by the mesh, and the Trocadéro in the background
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