DeliEffiel

My favorite thing in Paris is the Eiffel Tower (And the cafes, and wine and cheese and Seine and the Latin Quarter, but I’m narrowing down here.)

Many people all over the world are probably uttering that same sentence, but we all have different reasons for liking it. For me it is because of the constant reminder.

I could be deeply lost in tiny roads filled with 500 years of footsteps and conversation, far within the Latin Quarter across the city, when all of a sudden with the slightest bend of the road and the parting of a building, the tip top of the tower comes into view.

Or I could be at the top of Montmartre on the highest point of the glimmering city in crowds clinging to the rough iron fence every couple of feet to see the tower from in between stubborn tree branches. From this angle at the top of the hill, the tower sticks up dramatically from the low city, puncturing the sky. The onlookers gather and wait with bated breath for the top of the hour when the tower starts glittering against the sky. When it starts, a collective gasp and hush fall over the crowd, and the entire city for the five minutes.

Or I could be down in the Champs de Mars with the giant metal structure looming over me. I can sit at the concrete foot, the bottom of the legend, and while avoiding the dozens of street peddlers selling miniature versions of the tower I can look up behind me at the giant tower that I’m leaning against, physically touching it, yet it still looks like a painting.

No matter where I am in the city, the tower seems to show up at the perfect time almost to say, “Hey! You’re in Paris!”