Le Tower

Ok, so we had to go to the Eiffel Tower. Of course, everyone who comes to Paris must do this, and they were all there. I (mom) had the brilliant strategy to wait until late afternoon on Sunday, thinking the lines would be shorter, and perhaps they were, but there were still tons of people. It took us almost 45 minutes to just get to the elevator to the 2nd level, then another 20 mintues or so to get to the top, squished in the whole time. Then at the top, you had to wait just to get to the railing. Squished. And, of course, all of the tourist predators were in residence- scam artists, mediocre performance artists, overpriced food, souvenier hawkers. Why don't the tourist websites and photos describe all of this? And, did I say, it was really crowded?

Dad waited at the bottom, and enjoyed two hours of peace and quiet, I suppose. The external view of the Tower, is in fact, lovely, and I can't say I would have missed it if we didn't go up. Dad went to the top of the Arc (which was free) and enjoyed the view there just as much. However, the kids were absolutely thrilled, loved every minute of it, including the bickering in line, talking to the little British-Indian kid eating cashews behind us, and coming back down the stairs, and their enjoyment, of course, made it all worth it.

PS- it was definitely a good thing to do on our last day, as we had some idea of what we were looking at, and Sam was able to point out several landmarks on her own.

PPS- we spent several hours in the playground below the tower, near the Museum of Man, and had a relaxing time while the kids played in the sand with their new cars. It was a much needed outlet for them, and a nice pause for us.