Paris from the Heights

Although we had been to Paris several times before, neither of us had ever been to the top of the Montparnasse Tower. We thought that this could be a suitable time to venture there, after all it is the highest point in the city..

I was interested in seeing a new view of Paris. Maggie saw the queue and panicked. "I am not doing this" she yelled in my ear. "It's perfectly safe", I tried to reassure her. I felt her fingernails dig right into my palms, almost drawing blood. We shuffled forward and paid our 17 Euro each. Maggie threatened to have a turn, and I really thought that she was going to.

"It's bigger than the lift in our hotel" I explained, knowing full well that no lift on the planet could possibly be any smaller. Somehow she stayed upright and made it into the lift. A few seconds later we emerged on the 56th floor. Maggie went a nasty shade of pale green, but somehow made it to the window. Amazingly she was soon so distracted that the heights were forgotten. Her camera started clicking and she started looking for the landmarks of the city that we knew so well.

On the very top of the building is an outdoor observation deck, requiring another couple of flights of steps of climbing. I set off to the top, knowing that Maggie would never follow me. To my surprise, she did. We also met Greg and Andrea, who had also chosen this same time to visit one of the highest points in Paris. Apparently Greg suffers from a fear of heights too, but was also distracted enough to actually enjoy the experience.

After an hour or so of picture taking and a pretty ordinary coffee, we took the trip back down and returned to our hotel. Later in the day we met up with Bob, Greg and Andrea and Gordon and Sue for a night cruise along the Seine. Although we had done it several times before, it is still a great way to see Paris by night, even if it was starting to drizzle a little.

All seven of us then walked the riverbank all the way back from the Eiffel Tower to the Louvre. The rain had passed by and the evening was warm and still. A couple of wandering musicians were playing haunting French melodies. We stopped at a lovely Brasserie to enjoy coffee together, as after all we were in Paris and it seemed the appropriate thing to do. By the time we finally tumbled back into our room our feet were tired, but it had been a wonderful day.Read more