PARIS, FRANCE {EIFFEL TOWER}

Ever since I was a child I have seen this pointy metal structure called the Eiffel Tower showcased in books, in painting, on home decor... you can find the symbol on practically anything yet nothing prepared me for what it would be like to see this beautiful monstrosity in real life. In 2009, I headed to Paris to do some photo work and landed upon one of the most photographic cities I have ever been to. Oddly, even so- it is also one of my least favorite cities as well because I found myself surrounded by rude, smelly, judgmental people which greatly dampened the atmosphere. Ok, back to the tower. I will never forget the first time I saw it. I was touring the city with my brother Cake, who was living there at the time studying cooking. He took me there by subway. We came out of the subway station, walked up a flight of stairs until we reached the sun and I turned to my left and stopped dead in my tracks. This was the scene in front of me:

The photo still doesn't do the sight justice but it's the best I could do without bringing each of you there with me.  I've always had some odd fascination with this structure. My living room is covered with Eiffel Tower things. This was pretty darn exciting. I sat there for a long time just staring at it.

As I continued on my adventure in Paris, I would photograph any image I could that allowed me to put the tower somewhere in the background. I have always thought this image to be fun. Somehow I always seem to capture birds flying off of sculptures when I go places and I never even know I did until I get home and look at the photos.

This is my favorite photo that I took of the tower. When I took this I was standing at the top of Notre Dame Cathedral. It took climbing 400 very steep spiral steps to get this image. What I think I love is that unless you look closely at the cars and buses, you could places this photo in practically any time period from when the tower was built. It's ageless. This is another 16x24 inch canvas that hangs on my office wall. It is so beautiful blown up.

And here is one more from the top of Notre Dame but this time you can see a gargoyle off to the side. When I got back from Paris I said it was the first place I have ever been that I didn't feel the need to ever go back to but the more and more I look at my photos, the more I want to go back and take more. If only I could take away my sense of smell while I was there and if people would just be more nice. Another big this was how expensive everything in the city was. It would be a great place to go if you were rich but I wouldn't recommend it to a poor college student.

And then I must include a photo of the tower at night all lit up. When it gets dark the lights on the tower go on which is the yellowish orange color you see but every hour on the hour the tower then also sparkles like crazy for a few minutes. It looks like a tower of glitter and that is the white areas you see around the arches. It is quite a scene. There are huge crowds that gather to watch. It was really hard picking some of my favorite Eiffel Tower photos to post. I have so many more. If you would like to see more, please feel free to contact me and I'd love to send you a link. 

~Kristen~