Eiffel Tower


This past weekend I took a quick trip to Paris. I was with two fellow classmates. We spent time sightseeing, walking around, shopping, and eating. On Saturday, we spent most of our day at the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is one of Paris' major landmarks, and I can say with complete confidence that it lives up to the hype. I knew that the Eiffel Tower would be pretty, I just did not realize how much I would enjoy looking at it, no matter how much or how little of it I could see. The image above is one of the first photos that I took of the Eiffel Tower, and it is also one of my favorites. The day was so beautiful. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, as it had been raining when we went to bed the night before, but Saturday was all sun. After walking around the tower for a while, we decided to head back to our hotel for a little while. 

We started heading back to the Eiffel Tower around 4, to stop to get dinner, a treat, and do some shopping. We stopped and got macarons on the way, which ended up being one of the best things that I ate while in Paris. I got the chocolate flavor, as I felt that it was a classic option, and it was so good. We made it to our dinner destination, and we spent some time there just talking and reflecting on our experiences in Paris. After dinner we started walking back to the Eiffel Tower, with the intention of getting a baguette and getting a spot on the lawn of the tower to watch the sunset. 



We got to the Eiffel Tower with just under an hour until the sun would set. We set ourselves up in a spot on the lawn and centered ourselves with the tower. We sat there and ate our baguette on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower. It felt very touristy, but it was also so much fun! As we watched the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower, I was enthralled by the beauty of the experience. Once the sun goes down, every hour on the hour, the tower sparkles for 5 minutes. This was one of my favorite parts of being at the Eiffel Tower after dark. Everyone calmed down and just stared or took pictures. It was mesmerizing. While sitting and staring at the tower, I kept thinking about how much work went into making this structure. This thought reminded me of the poem Adam's Curse by W.B. Yeats. Specifically, the line "we must labour to be beautiful." Now I don't particularly like this poem, I felt that it took on a new meaning after looking at the Eiffel Tower. I always thought that the Eiffel Tower was pretty, but after thinking about how much work went into making it I felt that I was able to appreciate its beauty on a new level. Maybe this was what Yeats was getting at with his poetry. That you can appreciate beauty in a different way when you know how much work went into it. 


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