my paris

tons of vendors set up little "blankets" all around the base of the Eiffel Tower selling trinkets of many types... this "trinket" happened to be a train that said "WELCOME".... guess they were targeting those Crazy Americans!

This is the elevator that we rode to the second tier of the Eiffel Tower. You could not PAY me to go to the highest tier of the Eiffel Tower!!! Those that know me well know that I am terrified of heights.... I love to snow ski and the first few times up a ski lift are a nightmare for me (just ask Ross).... going down the slope - i take my time so the heights are not too bad. Well, this elevator acended at an angle first and then paused for a bit and started acending straight up. The elevator was pretty much glass all around. On the side of the elevator that I was on - I could see the pulley cord through the window... that is WHEN I had my eyes open. I started out carrying Jillian and at one point had to hand her to Ross - I was terrified! Funny thing - the kids were not even scared! The same thing happened to me on the way down.... we took the stairs. I was hanging on to the railing while the boys and Helen were running down the steps. At one point - I could feel my legs cramping up and I had chill bumps on my arms - I could not let go of the railing!! Thankfully once I got out of the elevator there were enough railings and fences at the top that I felt much better walking around!

Beware of Pickpockets!

I couldn't get close enough to this sign for a decent picture - but I still thought it was neat. The kids got some Kit Kat candy bars at the store today and later this week we are going to try to build our own Eiffel Tower model. (It took us about 10 minutes in the candy aisle at the grocery store to decide on the "perfect" candy to make the Eiffel Tower... Jayden suggested Kit Kat because the "sticks" looked like the metal on the tower!) I am going to have them do some "research" on the height and uses for the tower before they prepare their final project. (look for an update later this week!)

These "little guys" were for sale near the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. They are actaully just balloons filled with sand.... some googly eyes glued on and a tuft of yarn for hair. I didn't stop long enough to find out how much they actually cost!

as we walked around the area of the Eiffel Tower .... I captured what I thought were a few interesting views... these are probably not the "views" that you were expecting... you were probably expecting 10 different views of the metal tower standing tall above the city of paris :)

now here's your technical "lesson" on the Eiffel Tower (straight from the tour guide book that we bought!) - the Eiffel Tower was built for the Universal Exhibition in 1889 - the highest tower of it's time (320 meters tall) was meant to be demolished but was saved when it was taken over for miltary use as a watch tower. later and even today it is used for radio and telvision broadcast