Vicarious Paris: One woman's candid account of moving to Paris, with insights on: food, nightlife, and living like a local

Chapter Four: Having fun at the major landmarks (part 1)

“Having fun” and “major landmark” can seem like an oxymoron whether you’re in New York City or Paris, since the crowds, the line-ups, the families fighting, and the wannabe photographers can seriously kill your vibe.

When it comes to Paris, you can make the famous landmarks fun by considering certain details like timing, being selective, and having a sense of humour about the ridiculousness you’ll surely encounter. In the end it’s always worth it to see the “big things” once, because no matter how many cool photo filters get applied to the Eiffel Tower, nothing compares to taking in the weight of history with your own two eyes.

La Tour Eiffel

There is no denying this universal symbol of Paris, so I figured we’d start here first. Many tourists head over to Champ de Mars (M8 École Militaire)to see the Eiffel Tower close up. There are a few great spots to take a picture with the looming tower in the background, if you don’t mind being patient enough to take multiple shots, since you’ll inevitably be photo-bombed by a random child or old man. What I’m saying is it’s crowded; always crowded. Another great observational point is Trocadéro Gardens (Place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, M6, M9 Trocadéro), across the river from the Eiffel Tower. Many an iconic photograph has been taken from this vantage point, so if that’s your thing, go nuts, but you’ll have to get up early (and I mean really early) to avoid the crowd.

Yep...some really good spots for your photo-taking needs, so for sure, go to these places and take lots of photos, so people will know you officially saw the Eiffel Tower; hooray!

Sarcasm aside, I do think photos are cool and my camera is always with me. What I worry about for visitors to Paris though, is the list of things to do and the limited amount of time. This pressure makes it very tempting to go to where the Eiffel Tower is, take a picture, marvel at it for ten or fifteen minutes, and ta-da: “you did it.” If you don’t really care about towers this is fine, but if let’s say...you’ve been dreaming about going to Paris for years, and the Eiffel Tower is in some way symbolic of that...well in that case you should do more.

I actually recommend buying a ticket and going up the Eiffel Tower. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, since the top of the Eiffel Tower is the one place from which you can’t actually see the Eiffel Tower, but hear me out. First off, I only recommend doing this if you’re physically able to climb the stairs. By physically able I mean two working legs and no heart condition, because any other excuse is that you’re lazy. Before you call me an angry harpy, let me state that you’re not even allowed to climb the whole tower, maybe only a third of it. In other words the climb is not some big cardio workout; it’s doable. The reason you should do the climb is that after every “x” number of steps there’s not only a view/resting point, but also an exhibit outlining the history of the Eiffel Tower. Old photos, blueprints, details on how they put this amazing structure together....it’s like a museum ticket included in your ticket to go up the tower (and it’s cheaper than taking the elevator all the way up). I mean who can go wrong with a bonus museum? Unless you’re too cool for museums, in which case: “Ohhh, I’m so sorry I suggested an expansion of your knowledge; the nerve of me!”

(My love for museums makes me really defensive, but it’s okay, we’ll talk about cocktail bars too.)

If you didn’t buy your ticket well in advance and the website says “sold out,” don’t worry. This happened to us and I am happy to say that even in the middle of July tourist hell, if you get to the line-up by eight a.m. you can climb, learn, admire, take all your photos and leave in around two hours, with a full day in Paris still ahead of you.

If you love the Eiffel Tower and have completed all of the above, there’s one giant thing still missing from your list: a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower at night. I don’t know how many times I did this, but it was always a well-rounded experience; always fun, always interacting with strangers, always a lot of wine, always a wistful feeling as I stared up at the tower from my horizontal position on a blanket, always just...magical. Or maybe it just felt really magical, due to generous helpings of wine; take your pick on the pessimism scale.