PARIS, FRANCE

The third stop of my European tour was in the City of Love, the City of Lights, Paris. While my hotel room had a view of the Eiffel Tower, it wasn’t enough, I had to get up close to it. I headed out on foot with the tower as my beacon. I passed the Paris Military School, The Ecole Militaire, which was built in 1750 and the school that Napoleon Bonaparte attended. Just on the other side of the military school is Champ de Mars, the plaza that leads to the tower. At the far end of the plaza stood the Tour Eiffel, larger-than-life, right in front of me, a sight that I had waited a long time to see. I took so many pictures as I slowly made my way down the promenade. Each angle seemed to be better than the last.

First, some warnings. I was approached a few times by these groups of girls with clipboards. They would ask if you spoke English and prompt you to sign a petition for some charity, claiming that they were not asking for a donation, simply a signature and pulling at your heart strings with sob stories. If you declined, they would get mad and treat you very rudely. If they were successful in getting you to stop and talk, they would attempt to pickpocket you while you were signing their petition. Luckily, I had been warned and knew to steer clear. I made up several languages to throw them off. In addition to them, the place was swarming with a bunch of other gentlemen trying to sell you Eiffel Tower statues. I had heard that they may also try to pickpocket you when you purchase something from them but I think they were just trying to sell cheap junk for overinflated prices. So, on a later day, I ended up buying a large statue from them. I offered a bunch of them unreasonably low prices, increasing just a little each time. I established the least that any of them would take and just held firm with that and eventually got one to bite. Do your research on prices and always haggle. Also, be smart about where you keep your money and don't flash it around, etc, etc. Just normal protocol at any tourist destination. Finally, the last scam that you have to watch out for is the find the ball game. Everyone has seen this; you try and determine which of the three cups the ball is under. The guys moves the cups around slowly and you can guess which one it is under each time. However, they will never let you pick when he is moving in slow speed. There are a bunch of people surrounding him that seemingly don’t know each other but are actually working in conjunction with the organizer. They will pick and win while he is in slow motion , making it seem so easy and as soon as you place a bet, he speeds up and will always trick you. I watched a guy lose around 1000 Euro within a few minutes. They will make it seem like nothing to bet and win 100-200 Euro at a time but in the end, you will lose. In addition to losing, if you are just standing around watching, they will have someone cruising the crowd looking for an easy pickpocket target. Just be careful!

Now that the warnings are out of the way, I went to the Eiffel Tower each day that I was in Paris. I waited for a nice sunny day to go up to the top of the tower. I had purchased my ticket from the hotel and it was an express ticket so I didn’t have to stand in the long queue that can form, especially as sunset nears. Each level has its own uniqueness and is worth a visit. There are even a couple restaurants that you can have lunch or dinner at with advance reservations. The views in all directions are spectacular so make sure to take it all in!

At night the tower transforms. It is lit up and a beautiful sight from anywhere around the city. My favorite place was across the River Seine at Palais de Chaillot. There is a fountain that shoots water every so often and at night you can get an amazing view of the tower and its reflection on the pond that leads to it. There is a rotating beacon atop the tower that spins around like a lighthouse, adding to its splendor. To top it off, something that I did not know, at the top of each hour of the night there are 1000s of strobes that sparkle for five minutes or so and make it look magical. The Eiffel tower is something that is not to be missed on any trip to Paris, in fact, it is hard to miss. Stay tuned for more from my Paris adventures this week.