Tour Eiffel Panorama

Another shot of the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris on a beautiful Autumn morning.
This view is from the Champs de Mars where the Peace monument is. The place was still empty with few tourists wandering around.

I don't know about you but I've met many people who dislike the Eiffel Tower, finding it ugly and breaking the charm of Ol' Paris.
I personally find it beautiful and a marvelous piece of architecture. I especially enjoy it when the tower sparkles for a minute every hour at night.

Have you ever been to Paris to visit the Tower? Do you like it or do you find it ugly and intrusive?

Photo Essay: Pere Lachaise Cemetery ~ Paris

Bored of the Eiffel Tower or the Notre-Dame Cathedral when visiting the beautiful city of Paris? Why not spend a quiet afternoon walking along the haunting tombstones of the most famous and most visited cemetery in the world? The Père Lachaise Cemetery!

~~oOo~~

1) Entrance of Père Lachaise, the most visited cemetery in the world. It was established in 1804 by Napoleon Bonaparte.

La Blue Eiffel

An unusual shot of the Tour Eiffel in Paris. I have not touched the colors, so yes.. It was blue :)

In 2008, the Eiffel Tower was lit in blue every evening because France was presiding the E.U. at that time. It was an overcast evening so the sky appeared pinkish.

You can see a different view from the tower here. It also had the yellow stars that represent the European Union flag.

Enjoy!

Peace

While visiting the Eiffel tower again with a friend, I came across this monument at the end of the "Champs de Mars" (a big garden next to the tower), right in front of the military school that you see behind the monument on the photo.

It is a monument dedicated to Peace. It consists of 32 pillars with the word "peace" written in 32 different languages all over them.

I find it kind of ironic to have a peace monument right in front of a military school actually.

And just a little trivia for those interested: Do you know why that big garden is called "Champs de Mars" (field of mars)? No it has nothing to do with the planet.. It's because this area was used as a field to plant potatoes imported from the American continent. These potatoes were planted in the month Mars, hence the name. Yep... Before being a french icon, this area was a potato field :)

Bon appetit!

French Icon

When we hear "Paris", one of the first images in our head is: The "Tour Eiffel".

This 324m (1063 feet) high tower is the tallest standing structure in Paris and is the most visited single paid monument in the world. It was built in 1889 for the Exposition Universelle and was supposed to be destroyed in 1909. As it has been used by the army and by a radio station (an antenna is on the top), the city of Paris gave permission for the tower to stand longer and it later became one of the icons of the city of Love.

It is also a great idea to visit the tower at night as it is all lit up (different colors depending on the occasion). Every hour, it starts sparkling for a few minutes. Don't miss it!