Going up the Eiffel Tower

When we made the first of our Paris bucket lists, going up the Eiffel Tower was nowhere on it. I had decided that it was something that only tourists would do, that I did not want to buy tickets way in advance to stand in a long line-up, I did not want to push into a crowded elevator and I thought that the view would not be worth the hassle. We went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe (totally worth it: we loved standing in the center of the étoile and watching the traffic swirl around) and the Tour Montparnasse (we went at night and there were incredibly long line ups for an experience that we thought was not that special), the rooftop of the Galeries Lafayette (if you are shopping there, or even if you are not, climb the stairs to the upper floor and look at the Paris skyline including a wonderful close up of the Palais Garnier) and the top of the hill in Montmarte by the Sacre Coeur (a must-do for many reasons, including the skyline view). So, I did not feel that a trip to the top of the tower was necessary.

Then we asked our girls what they wanted to make sure we did in Paris before going home to Canada and Sophia said she wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I had dragged Sophia to many, many sights in Paris that she did not really want to go to so there was no question in my mind that it was my turn to “have a positive attitude”. It was only a question of how and when.

To answer the “how” we had to consider whether this would to be a low-key or a big deal event. There is a range of choices in how to visit the tower: anywhere from reserving a table at the Michelin starred Jules Verne restaurant to foregoing the elevator and climbing the stairs to the second level. It seemed like the most popular choice is to take the elevator, not the stairs, and to go to the very top.

We did briefly consider whether we should go all out and reserve a table at one of the restaurants. The Jules Verne had been closed for renovations since we had arrived in Paris but had recently reopened. It was pricey: the menu was 135 euros for lunch and 190-230 euros for dinner. We decided that fine dining was not important enough to the girls that it would be worth the money and that the girls would rather free to move and explore than sit at a table so we did not book either the Michelin starred or more casual bistro restaurant.

We regularly walk through the Champs de Mars, the park surrounding the tower, and had often looked at the length of the queues and said, “I am so glad I am not in that lineup”. Even the line for people with advance tickets was usually quite long and you had to buy them weeks or up to two months ahead. We decided we should take advantage of the fact that we lived in Paris, a 20-minute walk from the tower, and could go at an off-peak time. We would not buy advance tickets and risk getting a rainy day. We would walk up the stairs instead of using the elevator because this option is much less popular and the line-ups are usually the smallest. If you decide you want to go to the top, you can buy tickets onsite at the second level and go from there and there is not much of a queue.

Sophia agreed with this proposal. 

In early September, after the summer tourists had left town, the day before Mavis’s 10th birthday and on a Wednesday, when the girls had only a half-day of school, we had lunch at home, dropped off the school backpacks and took the quick walk across the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. The sun was shining but it was not too hot. There was a beautiful, clear blue sky.

It was exciting to cross the barrier of the protective fence and actually stand underneath the tower for the first time. We had often noticed how the Eiffel Tower has such a different personality when you view it from a distance compared to when you are close up and can see the details in it’s construction. Getting closer than we had even been before, and looking up into it’s heart, it changed again and we were in awe, struck by the enormity of it. 

There was only one family ahead of us. After waiting less than five minutes, we bought our tickets and started climbing. It was 32 euros for the four of us to climb to the second level (tickets to the top in the elevator would have been almost 80 euros) Turns out, on the day we went, the wind was too strong and so the decision of whether to go to the very top of the tower was taken out of our hands. I do not know what happened to the people who had bought to-the-top tickets months in advance. Did they get a refund? 

We climbed the 674 steps, 410 feet, 116m to the second floor of the tower. They say it will take about 30-45 minutes to do the climb and there are motivating signs along the way to tell you how far you have to go. En route we could really examine the skeleton of the tower and were able to touch the massive screws and plates of metal. It was fun to watch the elevator go past us. We were lucky as, for most of the time, we were the only ones we could see in the stairwell and it felt like our own private, industrial, tower. We stopped at the first level where you can walk on the glass floor and read the interactive exhibits on the history and how the Tour Eiffel compares to other towers around the world. On the second floor you get to stand outside and get just stare at the views. We have a map of Paris on the wall in our kitchen and this was like looking at it in real life as we followed the boulevards, found the monuments and named the buildings we had visited. Even if you did not pay for the elevator on the way up, you can take it down for free. We decided not to and instead went back to the first level to relax for a while and soak up the view. There are a bunch of food options to choose from: the bistro for a meal, macarons and a bar for wine or champagne. We chose ice cream and chilled for a while in the lounge chairs while looking out at the Paris skyline. Many of the chairs were taken but it was not hard to find some. Again we were happy to be there at an off-peak time. It looked to me a lot of the people up there were locals who had chosen to come to the Eiffel Tower for something to do on a nice afternoon.

We walked the rest of the way back to bottom. It was much easier than going up and again, we had the stairwell mostly to ourselves.

I have heard many people say, and read in guidebooks and blogs that going up the Eiffel Tower is overrated. It was these comments that discouraged me from wanting to do it in the first place. I would now say that it was a good thing to do and I am happy we did it. I cannot compare our experience to what it would have been like in the height of tourist season but I would speculate that it was hugely different. We had room to breathe, space to relax, and spent no time waiting. If you can do it that way, I recommend it, but I know not everyone has that option. Even during peak times, I think I would choose the walk up option again. On the stairwell there will always be a certain amount of space and you are in the open air. I have not been in the elevator so cannot say for sure, but I feel like you might miss some of the magic by riding up and down. For us, I am pleased that we saved the experience for the second half of our time in Paris because it was so fun to look at our now-familiar-city from a new perspective. If someone was coming to Paris for a week, I would probably suggest saving the Eiffel Tower for the end of their trip for this same reason.

Thank you, Sophia, for making sure we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I enjoyed our visit so much that I would go again. In fact, I thought our family might do a farewell visit to the tower before saying goodbye to Paris, maybe in the evening this time for another different perspective. Covid restrictions will likely make that visit impossible so we will likely say goodbye from afar, perhaps from our favourite lookout point, Trocadero, which is usually jammed with tourists but is eerily quiet these days. When we are back in Paris, we will go up the Eiffel Tower again and look down on a city and see how many monuments, boulevards, bridges and sites we can name. Who knows when this day will come but when it does, it will be a lovely way to say hello and see our beautiful city again.