Eiffel Tower Summit and Musee du Louvre!

Have I told you I’m afraid of heights? This morning we went to the Eiffel Tower. It’s amazing, over 100 years old, built for the world fair in 1889. It’s 324 meters high, remember I’m afraid of heights! We took a very small ‘elevator’ to the 2nd floor up the massive west leg of the tower. I must admit, the view is spectacular. We admired the view from all corners of the 2nd floor. Did I need to go higher, no but I already bought my ticket. We entered an even smaller elevator to the summit. It was packed and I held my breathe until we reached the summit at 276m, that’s 906 feet in the sky. Yes, I admit the view was even more breathtaking, but I could barely manage to make my way to the outside ledge to take look out.  

There were too many people on a tiny little space, so I didn’t last long up there and was thankful to be on my way back to the 2nd floor. I was hoping to catch a macaron and champagne but the place was closed on the way back!?! I have been in Paris for over 24 hours and still not had a macaron, how is this possible? 

After lunch we walked down to the Louvre to find Mona and Venus. Le Musee du Louvre is ginormous. I would need a week or two to see everything. We enter at the famous Pyramid. Our first mission of course the Denon wing for the Mona Lisa. We took our time to admire all of the pieces in the wing, however you could tell there were people with only one piece to see. We took in paintings by Bottocelli, da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt and Corot to name a only few. There are hundreds and hundreds in one wing. We finally found Mona and it was a frenzy, a shame that you can’t actually take a moment to enjoy it. 100+ people all jammed in trying to take selfies. Perhaps they could organize a line or something? I have heard stories that it will be small, but it wasn’t as small as I imagined. I was lucky enough to view a piece from 1503, if only for a few moments. And maybe I snapped a picture too, but at least I wasn’t rude about it. Our next stop, Venus de Milo, Aphrodite discovered in 1820. Along the way we found sculptures from Donatello, Michelangelo and Canova. We also found Greek and Roman antiquities on our leisurely way out. Still so much more to see including an Egyptian section, upon my list for my next trip to Paris. 

After all this walking, a bottle of Bordeaux is in order!