Eiffel Tower – why is it so popular?

The Eiffel Tower is the most visited paid monument in the world with over 300 millions people!

It is 324 meters high and it weighs 10 000 tonnes, that’s why it is called La Dame de Fer (The Iron Lady).

About 7 millions people discover one of its floors each year.

La Tour Eiffel can sway 6 to 7 meters in the wind but try not to think about it while going up!

The Eiffel Tower, La Tour Eiffel in French, was the main exhibit of the Paris Exposition — or World’s Fair — of 1889. It was constructed to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and to demonstrate France’s industrial prowess to the world.

However, the symbol of France has created many controversies, already when the arrangement started in 1887, over 300 artists have protested to destroy the “ridiculous tower”. They believed that a steel construction does not fit the climate of Paris. Fortunately, they did not manage to stop it development and the Eiffel Tower was made.

Despite the original plan to keep it just for 20 years, the hit of lightning and the Hitler’s order to tear it down, the Iron Lady survived till now.

Luckily for us! We can visit it any time of the year from 9 am till midnight. The lift from the ground takes us directly to the second floor (115 meters) from where we can take another lift to the top (276 meters) and have a view for over 65 kilometers. We can also go down to the first floor ( by lift or by stairs ) and see the ground through the glass floor.

Are you adventures? Choose shorter queue in the entrance to the Eiffel Tower and take 324 stairs to the first floor and another 380 stairs to the second floor. It’s not only better for your health but also cheaper than taking a lift!

Do not be scared to have a picture next to the glass floor on the first level of the tower and to read all history of the place that you can find around here.

Next to the glass floor, there is a “Place to kiss” which you can find at the top of the tower as well.

You can buy a ticket in advance but you it’s a bit risky – if it rains or the sky is full of clouds, you will not see much and you will be obligated to go anyways. The best time to have a visit on a sunny day so the visibility is more clear and you have an amazing view to many monuments in the city.

A visit up in La Tour Eiffel is around 3-4 hours altogether, depending of course on the queue and on how much time you want to spend on the top. You need to count at least one hour for taking incredibly nice pictures!

The Eiffel Tower is visible from many places in Paris and it can surprises you with a diversity of the colors depending on the occasions. I have seen it in colors of French flag for independence day, the colors of the football team PSG when Neymar joined it, the Earth Day as green and blue, black when famous singer Johnny Hallyday died and many many others.

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You can also see it shining for five minutes in each exact hour when it is dark. Every time the shining starts you would hear around a big “Woooow!” all around.

• Metro Line 9 (Pont de Sévres – Mairie de Montreuil : stop – Trocadéro)
• Metro Line 6 (Nation – Charles de Gaulle Etoile : stop – Bir-Hakeim)
• Metro Line 8 (Balard – Créteil : stop – Ecole Militaire)
• RER Line C (Versailles / Saint Quentin en Yvelines – Anthony / Massy Palaiseau : stop – champ de Mars – Tour Eiffel)