Lost in Europe» Stairs http://www.lost-in-europe.net Are You Lost in Europe? Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:11:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 A survival guide for Americans in France – Part 2 http://www.lost-in-europe.net/a-survival-guide-for-americans-in-france-part-2/ http://www.lost-in-europe.net/a-survival-guide-for-americans-in-france-part-2/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:06:33 +0000 Lost in Europe http://www.lost-in-europe.net/a-survival-guide-for-americans-in-france-part-2/ So you are planning on visiting France. Here are a few things you should know before you go.

1. Learn some French. Learn the pleasantries - Hello, goodbye, please, thank you, etc. You would be surprised how far this will get you. We ... ]]> So you are planning on visiting France. Here are a few things you should know before you go.

1. Learn some French. Learn the pleasantries – Hello, goodbye, please, thank you, etc. You would be surprised how far this will get you. We all have heard horror stories of how rude the french can be. I only ran into one man who was rude and I suspect he was just having a bad day. You will be in their country, show respect and you will be shown respect.

2. Buy a book/map. This is important. Since museums and monuments are all over the city, you need to plan your day ahead of time. We purchased a book on Paris before our trip. It included a wonderful map. Every morning during breakfast, we would look over the book to see what was closed for the day (a lot of the smaller museums are closed on Wednesdays for some reason). We would decide where we wanted to go, map it out using our map and the Metro map we purchased and then head out for the day.

3. Pack comfortable shoes. You will be doing a lot of walking. Several months before my trip, I started walking in my local mall with a new pair of tennis shoes. At first I only made 2 trips around. A few days before my trip, I was up to over a mile per walk. Physically, I was ready for my trip and my shoes were broke in!

4. Buy the Museum Pass. If you are planning on visiting several museums and places of interest, buy the Museum Pass. It will save you money (entry into over 60 museums and monuments!). You can purchase the pass on-line before your trip or at some Metro stations. By purchasing the pass, you can also save time. We just showed our pass and walked right into several museums.

5. Eiffel Tower. When purchasing your ticket to go up into the Eiffel Tower, beware! Make sure you are at a ticket booth that sells tickets to take the elevator up, not the stairs. We made that mistake. We climbed and climbed and climbed to just reach the first level (its a LOT higher than you think!). From level 1, we were able to take the elevator to the second and third levels and we were able to take it all the way down.

6. Restaurants. Be daring. Try something new! Try something out of the way! We tried different ethnic restaurants daily. On our last night there, we asked our hotel clerk where an authentic, local french restaurant was. He pointed us away from the busy streets towards a neighborhood nearby and told us this is where they eat. I can honestly say, this was the best

]]> http://www.lost-in-europe.net/a-survival-guide-for-americans-in-france-part-2/feed/ 0 Vist the Eiffel Tower in Paris http://www.lost-in-europe.net/vist-the-eiffel-tower-in-paris/ http://www.lost-in-europe.net/vist-the-eiffel-tower-in-paris/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:14:03 +0000 Lost in Europe http://www.lost-in-europe.net/vist-the-eiffel-tower-in-paris/



e of liberty for the United States, the Big Ben in London, and Paris as the Eiffel Tower which it is a remarkable piece of art and a great attraction for tourists who visit Paris.

Construction of the Eiffeltower started many years ago in 1887 and ended in 1889, a master piece of metal by Gustave Eiffel, the architect who was the first to design and built metal bridges that didn’t fall down. Gustave Eiffel lived in the top of the Eiffel until he died.

Gustave Eiffel didn’t really like the design of the Eiffel Tower, it was actually designed by 2 of his employees but when the positive critics kept coming in Gustave Eiffel bought the design and signed eventually with his name. In cooperation with Frederic Bartholdi Gustave Eiffel designed the statue of liberty of New York.

The Eiffel tower is 300 meters high + the antenna of 24 meters, a total of 324 meters but strangely enough the tower shrinks depending of the weather, still out of the 300 meters there can only be a difference of a couple of centimetres. When the temperature is high in the summer the tower stretches out until 15 centimetres extra. The Tower has 1665 stairs, they used 40 tons of paint and 2,5 million nail.

The Eiffel tower opened in 1889 as it was build for the World Exhibition held in Paris a celebration for the French Revolution in 1789. It was almost broken off in 1909, but the local radio stations prevented the Eiffel from going down, the radio stations used the tower for a good reach.

When the mass tourism began the Eiffel Tower became the international symbol of Paris, these days when you think of Paris everybody sees the Eiffel Tower in front of him.

New Years Eve 2000 the Eiffel Tower was enlightened with 1000 of small lights, which was so beautiful and the responds was great that since then the tower always lights up in the evening around 10Pm just for a couple of minutes.

The first platform is kind of an Eiffel Tower museum, pictures, stories, newspapers. Everything that tells something about the Eiffel tower can be viewed over here.

The Eiffel Tower has 2 restaurants, Altitude and Jules Verne. The top platform contains a bar and souvenir shop and the office of Gustave Eiffel.

When ever visiting the Eiffel Tower make sure you are at the top when the sun goes down, a spectacular view.

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