Paris Series: Climbing the Eiffel and Gyros Dinner

After all these days in Paris, I had not climbed the Eiffel. I was at the base of the Eiffel a couple of night before but did not climb it because I was so dead tired. This time, I timed myself to start the climb before sun sets.

There are three platforms on the Tower. The first two floors can be reached by stairs or by lifts. Taking the elevator to the 2nd floor costs 7.80 Euros while stairs costs 4.00 Euros with double the fun.

Climbing up Eiffel is not easy. There are signs on the tower’s trivia after couple of landing. It was interesting reading and also a good chance to catch a breather.

The first floor has the largest platform. There is quite a few displays and exhibitions of past and recent history here. There is also a post office on this level. Weird … is there a story behind this post office?

The view from the second floor towards the Champs de Mars Park looked so beautiful. As much as I wanted to walk all the way to the end to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower from that end, I balked at walking all the way to the end. It must have been at least 3/4 of a mile end to end.

This is the view to the top from the 2nd floor. The public can only get to the top through the elevator. I saw there there is a spiral staircase one can take to the top.

The ride from the 2nd floor to the top costs about 3.70 euros, I think.

There are two levels of platform at the top. The bottom platform is entirely indoor. It was pretty crowded.

And then it started to rain … shucks … I can’t take any decent shot from here. Anyway, you can’t get much of a shot out a window.

I went up to the top platform which is open air. Saw a faint rainbow. That little rainbow got a lot of people excited and were jostling to take a picture of it.

It’s kind of hard locating the Paris replica of the Statue of Liberty below. The replica is presented as a gift from the Americans as appreciation for the Status of Liberty given by the French to New York. BTW, did you know that the engineer that built the Statue of Liberty in New York is also Gustave Eiffel?

It was very cold up the tower. The rain came down in hail. Freezing!

The view from the top is beautiful especially at night.

Another night shot from the top platform …

After the trip to Eiffel, I took the Metro to Little Athens, or at least I think that was the place I went to. The train is a double decker.

I went to this Gyros place for dinner — it’s (relatively) cheap and has two big juicy gyros on the rotisserie. To me the Greek Gyros is similar to the Turkish Doner and the Arabic Sharwarma — same thing but just different name.

This place is like a fast food of sorts — just a little more disorderly.

I had “the works” because I wanted to have a bit of everything. This costs 6.50 Euros. Frankly, this does not taste great but does look very good no doubt. There was not much of meat in there.

The pita is very disappointing … it was hard, dry and tastes like a piece of cardboard.

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped by an Indian restaurant to get myself a piece of chicken. I bought this tandoori chicken for just 3 euros. I missed having big chunky meat the past few days. It was pretty good.

The man at the counter asked me where I was from. When I told him that I was from Canada, I could detect a disappointment in his face … well, I don’t blame him … my Asian face does not look anything like a typical Canadian. He said he likes Canada and tried to speak to me in French … well, although French is a national language in Canada, people in the western part of the country do not use it. Anyway, he gave me a piece of … something … he said a gift from France to Canada. I took it … it was good. What is it anyway?

This is my last post on Paris. From tomorrow I’ll start my way to Brussels — there will be lots of food blog in Brussels.

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