Our final morning in Paris was set for another attempt to ascend the Eiffel tower. We had advance tickets and a guided tour set up. We made sure this time by being first in line to one of the many entrances.
The ticket shows that it is the 130th anniversary of its completion in 1889.
Once inside the containment area I could now stand and look up at the underside
Or the outside
We waited around in the bright sunshine waiting for our tour guide to make their presence known so we could gather and start the tour.
Once our tour guide arrived and gathered our group, we made our way to one of the legs and listened to her describe the history of the tower. Our group ascended using the stairs to the first level.
Once there, we regrouped as everyone ascended at different rates. Some more facts and figures and descriptions of what could be viewed was discussed then onwards and upwards using the stairs to the second level.
One of the questions I had for our tour guide was one about racing the flights of stairs to the top, all 1665 stairs and how long.
Apparently, I was right to ask as there is a race we just mistimed our visit or we could have seen or entered the 5th vertical race
To date the fastest climb it in less than 10 minutes! The speed records are presently held by Polish runner Piotr Lobodzinski, at 7'48''77 for the men (set in 2016) and by Australian runner Suzy Walsham, at 9'34''75 for the women (set in 2017).
Further questions were about the design of the iron structure
One interesting thing to note which you can see from the photos below (might need to click to enlarge them for better viewing) is that the elevators that go from the base to the second level had a driver on the outside until very recently. Now they have replaced a real driver with a mannequin even so it still looks very precarious to me!
Messing around at the second level and looking at the amazing views.
As promised more updates!