Eiffel

Waking up in a strange town at 6 in the morning was indeed a new experience. That the tower seemed so near only made it harder to stay indoors. So I started my first morning in Paris with a walk to the tower, afraid that I`ll get lost on the way.

Pro-Paris fact 4

The only way to get lost in Paris is to get lost in its beauty; you just can`t lose your way here. Most of the streets are arranged in neat little rectangles, ever road and avenue has a number of signs telling its name; and every bus stop has a map of Paris neatly framed on it`s rear wall. A person will have to be one or more of blind, illiterate, amnesiac, or just very very thick to lose his way here.

Anti-Paris fact 1

There are tourists at the Tower at 8 in the morning. I do understand enthusiasm but 8 a.m. is certainly too early to stand in front of a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge tower and ask an innocent, hungry and bewildered guy on his morning walk to take your picture.

Note to tourists 1

There is NO WAY YOU CAN TAKE A PERSON`S PHOTOGRAPH WITH THE FULL EIFFEL TOWER IN THE BACKGROUND, not without reducing the person to a tiny speck in a corner. So please do not ask an innocent, hungry and bewildered guy on his morning walk to do so. He is liable to get tempted to press the wrong buttons on your camera.

The problem with the eiffel tower is that it is not beautiful. It is too wiry to be graceful, and its USP of height doesn`t really work with all the buildings that have sprung up. Perhaps the view from its top is still amazing, more so now than when Gustav designed it, but there is little pleasure in staring at it`s graceless ascent from the ground.

It`ll certainly make a great place to commit suicide from, but I doubt most tourists will be in a mood to try that.

So I did find my way back... without having to use any of the bus-stop maps. Totally unimpressed.