Say hello to yet another one of the most famous monuments in the entire world, much less its home city of Paris, France. The Eiffel Tower, or Tour Eiffel in French, was designed by Gustave Eiffel. This marvelous creation was built from 1887 until 1889, alongside the Seine River. It has many uses, some of which include, obviously, that of a scenic/observation point and that of a radio tower. It is a monstrous structure, the tallest in France, actually, and stands more than 2,000 feet in height. As of right now, it is the most frequented monument that has an entrance fee in the world.
I did not actually pay to go up to the top of the tower, as it costs 12 Euros, and I was attempting to stick to visiting the monuments that had fees covered by my museum pass. However, while I waited on two of my friends to go up and have a look-see, I saw some interesting things.
First off, all over Paris, but especially anywhere rich tourists are expected to visit are women from a Middle Eastern country, I do not know which, that carry around signs written in English. They walk up to you, in their long skirts, and ask you if you speak English. If you respond with a yes, they immediately show you the sign which tells a story about their being from a foreign country, not having any money, and starving to death. A minimum of five of these women asked me the same question, some of them more than once, and I did not really know what I should do. As I literally only had a 50 Euro bill on me, as those are the types of bills ATMs dispense, and which was they money I had to use for food for my stay there, so I could not have given any of them even one Euro. Finally, I responded with a no when they asked me if I spoke English, so I was then asked in French, German, and Spanish. It got to be really annoying.
The second thing I saw that was really interesting was two cops chase down a man that was “selling” Eiffel Tower key chains. There were about fifteen of these kinds of men, all around 25 years of ago or so, and, every time the cops came around, either on foot, on bike, or in a car, they took off in the opposite direction. I have no idea what they were doing that was wrong, but I looked up as a man rushed full speed past my shoulder just in time to see a nightstick from one of the cops go flying through the air and hit him in the legs. The two cops chasing him did not manage to catch him, as the one had thrown his nightstick to no avail and the other had tripped and fallen over a small fence. To this day, I wonder if the man was a pickpocket or if it was illegal to sell the replicas of the Tower underneath it or what.
I did not actually pay to go up to the top of the tower, as it costs 12 Euros, and I was attempting to stick to visiting the monuments that had fees covered by my museum pass. However, while I waited on two of my friends to go up and have a look-see, I saw some interesting things.
First off, all over Paris, but especially anywhere rich tourists are expected to visit are women from a Middle Eastern country, I do not know which, that carry around signs written in English. They walk up to you, in their long skirts, and ask you if you speak English. If you respond with a yes, they immediately show you the sign which tells a story about their being from a foreign country, not having any money, and starving to death. A minimum of five of these women asked me the same question, some of them more than once, and I did not really know what I should do. As I literally only had a 50 Euro bill on me, as those are the types of bills ATMs dispense, and which was they money I had to use for food for my stay there, so I could not have given any of them even one Euro. Finally, I responded with a no when they asked me if I spoke English, so I was then asked in French, German, and Spanish. It got to be really annoying.
The second thing I saw that was really interesting was two cops chase down a man that was “selling” Eiffel Tower key chains. There were about fifteen of these kinds of men, all around 25 years of ago or so, and, every time the cops came around, either on foot, on bike, or in a car, they took off in the opposite direction. I have no idea what they were doing that was wrong, but I looked up as a man rushed full speed past my shoulder just in time to see a nightstick from one of the cops go flying through the air and hit him in the legs. The two cops chasing him did not manage to catch him, as the one had thrown his nightstick to no avail and the other had tripped and fallen over a small fence. To this day, I wonder if the man was a pickpocket or if it was illegal to sell the replicas of the Tower underneath it or what.
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