Ice Skating at the Eiffel Tower???

It has been WAY too long since I wrote a post, so I have promised myself to get back into the habit of weekly posts. We’ll see how well I do!

On my most recent trip to Paris in February, I was there with a girlfriend and she wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower. As anyone knows who has been to Paris in recent years, it is the one tourist attraction guaranteed to be full of people, and if you want to go up the Tower itself, you will be required to wait in a ridiculously long line. Yes, I know that you can reserve a ticket on-line ahead of time, but even with a reserved ticket, you still have to stand in a line– slightly shorter than the non-reserved line, but it’s often still a hefty wait.

Well, she and I decided that since the line to “walk” up was only 10 people or so, that we would do that. What the heck? We could always stop for breaks if we got tired. So that’s what we did.

The first good news is that is that it actually wasn’t that bad getting to the first level. We did stop once, but otherwise we just went up slowly and steadily. And what a feeling of accomplishment when you come through the opening at the top stair and you have ARRIVED!

And then came the biggest shock of all. What did we find on that first level? A skating rink!! Yes, that’s what I said. An ice-skating rink!

Complete with snack bar of course!!

And though it was chilly, it was very clear and the view was, of course, truly amazing.

We decided to hike up the NEXT set of stairs to the 2nd level. Again, with slow, steady progress, we got there with only one stop.

And here is the tricky part– the deep dark secret. Once you get to that first level, there is a ticket booth and you can buy tickets there to go up to the top if you want! No waiting in that huge line down below. So now I have to recommend to you all to plan to walk up to the 1st level, at the least, instead of waiting in that ridiculous line. You won’t regret it!