Being a tourist at the Eiffel Tower

I know I said I wanted to do untouristy things whilst I was here (see last post) but yesterday, having spent hours reading (or trying to read) some awful long french article for one of my modules I thought "you know what, i'm in Paris, I'm going to go and take a selfie with the Eiffel Tower", and so I did. They say that as a foreigner in Paris, no matter how many times you see the Eiffel Tower it is never not exciting and breathtaking, and I have to say that's true (although i've only been here two weeks, we'll see at the end of the year). As I turned the corner at the top of the Jardins de Trocadero there it is, huge and looming straight ahead, and as impressive as ever. It's kind of weird how this effectively useless monument has become so hugely popular and so hugely iconic of Paris.

I could not believe the amount of people that were there, like me, to take photos of it, with it etc. People doing wedding photo shoots, popping champagne in their finest dresses for photos with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Selfie sticks left, right and centre, silly poses trying to pinch the top of it. It's such a bizarre thing to sit and watch people doing but then you can't judge people because we're all equally guilty of doing exactly the same thing and 5 minutes later it was me, on my own, posing for selfies with it in the background.

The size of it is hard to comprehend as well. It looms way above any of the surrounding buildings, so stood out from the rest of Paris. If you stand underneath it and look up it makes you feel dizzy, and i'm sure if you stand at the top and look down you feel even dizzier. On my list of things I want to do is go up to the observation deck of the Tour Montparnasse because I think you would get a great view of the Eiffel Tower and how it stands out against the Paris skyline. It's like when you go up the Empire State building in New York, you get a great view of New York, but not of the world-famous building itself because you're stood on it. Where as from the Rockefeller centre you get an amazing view of New York AND the Empire State building. So I think it would be cool to see the Eiffel Tower from a different view point than the ground.

I always forget what a weird light brown colour it is. Imagine if it was in gold or silver, or metallic pink, like the tiny little key rings sold underneath it, 5 for 1€.

A brief history of the Eiffel tower (as googled by me): 
- Designed by Gustave Eiffel, in 1889 to celebrate the 100-anniversary of the French Revolution.
- At the time it was completed it was the tallest building in the world at 381m. (The current tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai stands at 828m, almost 3 times the height of the Tour Eiffel).
- It was only intended to be a temporary structure and was nearly torn down in 1909, but saved due to recognition for its usage as a radiotelegraph station (it is apparently not as useless as I thought).
- It is repainted every 7 years (maybe metallic pink is an option?) and receives more visitors yearly than any other monument in the world, over 7 million on average.
- You can have dinner on the Eiffel tower for 190€ per person, plus 95€ for wine. Anyone want to take me?