I took the steps inside the Eiffel Tower… down.
No one would ever equate the word diet with the city of Paris. I spent 3 days eating croissants and ham and cheese. I’ve never eaten so much ham and cheese in my life. Not that I’m complaining. The food choices in Paris are endless and fabulous. I had no intention of visiting Paris and spending my days counting calories or depriving myself of all the goodies the city had to offer.
Like most European cities, a day in Paris involves a lot of walking. Even if you take the metro, you still spend the majority of the day on your feet. This can be a great justification to indulge your culinary desires. But there are times when you might need to step up that activity level a bit.
Once such opportunity is a visit to the Eiffel Tower. Being the biggest tourist attraction in Paris, the lines for the lift at the Eiffel Tower can get quite long. If you are visiting during peak travel season, the wait could be hours. However, if you are the adventurous type you can skip the lines and take the stairs! There are over 1500 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I wasn’t brave enough to attempt them going up (with the asthma and just generally laziness and all) but I decided not to spend another hour waiting for the lift to go back down.
So I walked down!
The Eiffel Tower has 3 floors at the top so if you focus on one floor at a time it can be less daunting. I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment once I got to the ground floor. And when anyone asks me if I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower I say “Yes! And I took the stairs…down.”