"Looking Up" (2011)
I was on my way back to my room after the boat tour, when I walked underneath the Eiffel Tower for the last time. The lines of tourist from earlier in the day were still there, although much much shorter than before. The crowd wasn’t anywhere near as thick as it was before sunset, so I took advantage of the extra space and started to wander around a bit. The tower itself is incredibly imposing, especially when you’re only a few feet away from its base. I spent quite awhile simply marveling at the scale and weight of the structure. Honestly, I was happily surprised that I could get so close to the tower itself. I thought it would be a bit like Mount Rushmore, where you can get close enough to see it, but you’re kept a good distance away from the actual monument.
It wasn’t until I was ready to leave that I took a moment to look up. I was somewhat startled by how beautiful the view up the tower really is. With a monument of this scale, I didn’t expect the guts of it to be pretty. The geometric patterns design for structural stability, coupled with the expert lighting created this lovely view of the Eiffel Tower’s ‘insides.’
