Paris Travelogue: The Eiffel Tower

Opening Hours and Admission
Open every day all year long:
- from 9:30am to 11:00pm, January 1 to June 14 and September 2 to December 31
- from 9:00am to midnight, June 15 to September 1
Some restrictions can apply when the weather's bad or it's very busy. Best check first to be safe.
Adult Full Rate: 1st floor €4,80, 2nd floor €7,80, top €12

How to Get There
Metro: Bir-Hakim
RER: Line C Champs de Mars-Tour Eiffel
Bus: 42, 69, 72, 82, 87

Photography Policy
No restrictions except for professional use when a written request must be submitted.

Le Tour Eiffel is the Notre Dame of the left bank and probably the most recognised structure in the world. Like so many in Paris, it isn’t just the building that’s impressive but the surrounding landscape. To the north is the grand Palais de Chaillot, built in 1937 for the Exposition Universelle. To the south, lies the Champs de Mars, a former military training ground with the Academie Militaire at its head. This was where Napoleon trained officers from the “wrong” class but with all the right qualities in the art of warfare. The Eiffel Tower stands proudly in the middle, like a gigantic, cast-iron exclamation mark.

There are many ways to photograph the tower: you can be on it, near it or far away and still make great pictures. It’s been photographed so often, though, that it can be difficult capturing a truly original image - and there are no lengths to which photographers will not go to find their own interpretation.

Reflections
When last there, my better half wondered what a man staring intently at the ground had lost. She hadn’t noticed the puddle at his feet and the Leica M4 under his arm - sure signs that he was checking out the tower’s reflection in the puddle and not looking for his house keys. If you want to capture something original, however, those are the sort of lengths you have to go to.

I have to say that I've only ever been to the top of the Eiffel Tower once. I keep meaning to go back because the views are spectacular-but so is the waiting line! It’s probably true to say that best time to go is first thing in the morning when the crowd is smallest but this advice has been passed around so often that there is usually no shortage of early birds hoping to fast track their way to the top. At midday at the height of the tourist season, you can wait for well over an hour so be prepared. You can while away the minutes by photographing the Tower’s structure or framing the queue in one of the arches.

Bird’s eye view
There are two levels on the tower at which visitors can alight from the somewhat scary glass-sided elevators they enter on the ground floor. The last level can only be reached by another elevator. If you’re feeling fit, you can take the 1665 stairs to the second level - a height of 115 metres. Whilst the general views across the Paris cityscape get better the higher you go, many of the attractive patterns to be found when pointing the camera at the ground can get out of reach at the top unless you have a telephone lens.

The gardens immediately adjacent to the tower at Place Jacques Rueff towards the Champs de Mars are interesting when seen from above but please keep a good hold of your camera as anyone at ground level anointed by a Nikon dropped from one of the viewing platforms is certain to have his holiday ruined.

Be selective
The temptation when confronted with the seemingly never-ending panorama below is to squeeze in as much of it as possible using a wide angle lens. You’ll probably be disappointed if you try that approach. The naked eye can scan a horizon and settle on points of interest but a wide-view shot reduced to a two-dimensional print will convey very little of what impressed you at the time.

It’s possible to include some of the tower’s girders and ironwork from the viewing platforms to give a sense of scale and depth to your pictures but the most fun is had picking out world famous landmarks from the top with your telephoto lens or zoom. It’s quite amazing what can be seen from 320m up. The modern business centre, La Defense, lies, somewhat incongruously, behind the Palais de Chaillot. The Sacre Coeur church atop the “Butte” or hill of Montmartre is some distance away on the eastern skyline but can be photographed quite nicely with a 200mm lens (that’s the equivalent in the 35mm format). The same focal length is ideal for scanning the city and identifying the huge dome of the Pantheon, the Louvre, Opera Bastille, etc.

For most people, the best place for external views of the Tower is probably the Palais de Chaillot. It’s not the most original viewpoint but there’s no denying that the Eiffel Tower looks pretty spectacular from here, particularly so at night when it’s floodlit or “sparkling” as it does for ten minutes on the hour from dusk until 2 a.m. (1 a.m. in the winter). There are some good shots to be had in the Champs de Mar, too, contrasting the ranks of square-topped trees with the Tower.

If you have time to explore the streets around the Tower, you can chance upon some dramatic views as the structure looms high above stylish Parisian homes. I’d like to spend more time doing this sort of thing in future as it’s one of the best ways of getting your own personal image of the Eiffel Tower.

Another impressive shot of the tower, placing it in some context, is from a spot near the Pont de la Concorde on the left bank of the Seine. At night, the ornate Pont Alexandre III in the foreground and most of the surrounding buildings are illuminated along with the tower and their brilliance is reflected in the river. A magical sight!