September 21, 2007, was the last time I went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I don't know if it is even open to visitors now — at least not the top level. The observation deck up there is too small and therefore gets too crowded. Not to mention the elevators. I wouldn't be comfortable going up there under current circumstances, even with my masque and my gel désinfectant. Anyway, in 2007 it was interesting to be looking down from above, onto and into these apartment buildings around the base of the tower.
I just have time to post these photos this morning. Right now I need to call our friend Sue in California to see what the situation is where she lives. Fires! It's surreal what is happening out there this summer. Normally, the fire season doesn't even start until October. Sue lives on 4 or 5 acres of land out in the country, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
I hope she's doing ok. There is a fire about 30 miles from us, but the air is a yellow-gray from the combined effect of all the ongoing fires from San Diego to San Francisco. That first picture almost gives me acrophobia. I was going to say agoraphobia but that's something else.
ReplyDeleteSince I have no fear of heights I had never heard of acrophobia, neither do have I fear of crowded places, but that should be recommended these pandemic days.
DeleteSue said the smoke is very bad, but temperatures have fallen from the 100+ highs now. She mostly missed being able to go outdoors and work in her yard and garden. She's 74 now and I'm sure she's starting to wonder how much longer she'll be able to live there and do all that yard work.
DeleteI had cousins living in one of those buildings.
ReplyDeleteI think you have almost as many cousins as I do!
DeleteIn fact, if we go far enough, we're all cousins!
DeleteThat's what I used to say to my co-workers in California. When I went to work at Software Publishing Corporation in 1989, there were two other recently hired editors on staff. Both were from North Carolina, one with a degree from Duke Univ. like me (she died from corona virus complications last April at age 82) and the other with a degree from U.N.C.-Chapel Hill and with close connections to relatives in Morehead City. How does it happen that three editors would all come from North Carolina? Well, we're all cousins, I'd say. What do you expect? (At the time, my mother expressed her opinion that the best English was spoken, obviously, in N.C. It was therefore obvious that good editors would be N.C.-born and N.C.-educated.) LOL.
DeleteGlad to know that your friend Sue is okay, despite the issues.
ReplyDeleteThese are really interesting photos, Ken!
I agree with Judy about the photos- the view of the apartments from the tower is interesting. Sue and I are the same age. I hope the fires stay away. It must be awful to breathe such smokey air. And yes we are all cousins, if we go back far enough;-)
ReplyDeleteLove the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower! And I'm enjoying your Paris photos.
ReplyDeleteThe atmosphere here south of San Francisco was so strange yesterday--orange sky, raining ash, dark, dark, dark--street lamps stayed on all day. Today is gray instead of orange, but we still have raining ash. No birds. Glad Sue is OK.
Sound surreal. The whole situation in California sounds surreal these days. Stay well.
DeleteI wonder if I'll ever have a chance to go up to the top of Paris's two towers again.