The Top of the Eiffel Tower

Last Updated on April 11, 2022 by Roslin Dwivedi

It was our first day in Paris, and we were slowly getting the hang of the place. After arriving at our hotel, we enjoyed the view from the room. The outdoor patio area was a great place to relax and feel the chilled fresh air— the beautiful interiors of the room, the amenities, all perfect for a holiday room. Baby Aanick was enjoying crawling everywhere in the room with the sheer joy of getting out of the stroller and baby carrier after 10 hours of travel. 

Spending some time relaxing, we were a bit late for our tour of the Eiffel Tower. We took a taxi from the hotel to make it on time and ended up paying extra money to the driver.

We ran towards the entrance of the Eiffel Tower compound and noticed the place was full of tourists. As we kept getting closer to the Eiffel Tower, the number of people was getting lesser. Which was a bit suspicious. That shouldn’t be the case. 

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The first sight of the Eiffel Tower

We reached a bit closer to the gate and then to an open area. A road from where we could see the bottom of the Eiffel tower. Even the Eiffel tower’s base was looking so remarkable. I kept admiring the Eiffel tower, which has been standing there for years and is still proud. 

That open area had something around 30-35 people, some were single travellers, some were families, and we were travelling with a baby. 

Everyone seemed to be waiting with a copy of their tickets for the tour. But we didn’t see any entrance or a queue to go inside. We noticed a few people were pointing and looking up, showing their partners/companions and kids something. Wondering what was going on, if that was normal?

One more thing was bizarre was the vicinity of the Eiffel tower. It was surrounded by local police officers. Seeing such an abnormality, we asked one of the officers, what is going on, and why we are here and not going inside. The officer answered that a man was trying to jump from the Eiffel tower, and officers were trying to get the situation under control.  

I was wondering where people can see the man and I couldn’t get my eyes on him. My husband showed me a man standing outside of the viewing deck with a red bag, and officers were trying to negotiate with him. 

So okay, we just spent some extra money on a taxi, suffering the tension of getting late. And now we have to wait until either he jumps orrrrr just wait. Standing and holding my baby who could lose his patience anytime and keep wondering when to visit the Eiffel tower later.

We were hoping they will soon start the tour once this drama is over. But an officer standing next to the barricade later informed us that the tour is cancelled for today. We could claim our tickets the next day in the morning. 

Also Read : 12 Things to do for the first time in Paris with a Baby – An ultimate 5 days itinerary

FlashBack – while planning to see Eiffel Tower

In the days leading up to the trip to Paris, we spent our evenings having sheesha and planning each leg of the journey. Making our itinerary one day at a time. We were looking to book our tour to the Eiffel Tower, after a day we arrived in Paris. But during our whole stay in Paris, all the time-slots were fully booked. And also the ticket to skip the line and summit, the top floor of the Eiffel tower was not available on their official site. Though the tickets were available on the other private tours and travel sites, it was costly. 

Digging into the official website thoroughly, I found one time-slot available on the day we were arriving in Paris. Which was not a wise idea because you never know when your flight is delayed, and you will end up losing the tour and money both. 

And even if we reached the right time, we wanted to take some rest.

The tickets available were only until the second floor of the Eiffel tower. My husband was distraught with that. He wanted to go to the summit, which was the third and the highest level of the Eiffel tower. I took my chances and booked the tickets, never wanting to lose our only opportunity to visit Paris without visiting the iconic Eiffel Tower. 

Present Day

Coming back to the present day,

The next day, morning when we went to the Eiffel Tower pushing our time to go to the Louvre Museum. We saw the area was packed with tourists, waiting in long lines. We were directed to go in another line for pre-booked tickets and also got to skip the queues as we were with a baby. 

As we passed the security check, we met with a ticketing officer and showed him our ticket from the previous day. He took our tickets and called my husband to go to one of the booking windows they had. We were supposed to buy a new ticket now, but at least we were not standing in the long queues. Standing away from the window and line, holding my baby, I could see my husband waiting for the ticket, and he looked back at me with that blank face. Inside my mind and heart, I began to sink, thinking all sorts of bad things. Did we get it or not? Are we going to see the Eiffel Tower or not?

He came back to me with a long face and showed me the tickets. And yippee… he managed to buy the ticket to the summit, the top floor, without having to pay a lot of extra money. Oh God wow, I couldn’t thank my husband’s wit enough. 

So finally, we had our tickets, and we boarded the diamond-shaped lift to ascend to the top of the Eiffel Tower. 

As the elevator moved up, we could see the people and the places on the ground shrinking to smaller. I tried to keep my eyes upon the roof of the lift preventing myself from getting vertigo.

The spectacular scene was making me dance inside as we embark from the elevator. We could see the tiny buildings, cars and large seine river with beautiful bridges from standing 300 metres above the ground..

Don’t forget Champagne

Enjoying champagne in that chilling breeze, looking at the full layout of the city and far away sky meeting the ground. My description will always be less than what it really was, it can only be experienced.
So finally, this is how we ended up visiting the top of the Eiffel Tower and made our experience of a lifetime.

What do you think? Do share, any of your story or incident when you got a chance to choose, and you grabbed it.