Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a long weekend in Paris with Mrs Worm and during the visit made my first appearance at the most famous monument in Europe, the Eiffel Tower. Now that I'm back I thought I'd give my opinion on the experience and whether or not it lived up to expectations.

Gustave Eiffel was the man responsible for the design and construction of the Eiffel Tower, he and his team of engineers worked on the Tower which was to be the pinnacle of their careers and remains to this day one of the most impressive monuments in the world - goodness knows what the first visitors thought back in the last century! Work started on the Tower back in 1887 and much to my surprise only took twenty two months to build, it was originally built for the World Trade Fair which was a big thing at the time. It is built in three different stages of Iron framework and is held together by many thousand rivets, the four supporting legs are laid in concrete foundations which go many metres under ground level. When it was completed in 1889 it's height was 312 metres and with the addition of an antenna during it's life, has grown to 324 metres today. It's weight is estimated at 10,000 tons and with every application of paint (every seven years) this amount grows and grows! When it was built it was also the tallest building in the world, that was until 1930 when the Empire State Building was built in Chicago, nowadays it has fallen down the pecking order a bit with the Toronto Tower in Canada now the highest. In 2001 it welcomed 6.1 million visitors and has recieved 20 million visitors since it's erection. I don't want to put people off visiting but believe it or not the Tower sways between 6-9 cm in the wind - I wouldn't be alarmed at this because if it didn't bits would snap off.

The Tower is situated just to the South of the River Seine a short taxi ride away from Central Paris. It is well served by the Metro system (underground tube) with the closest station being Champ de mars-tour eiffel but also within easy reach of the Bir Hakeim, Trocadero and Ecole militaire stations. Buses that stop outside the tower include bus numbers 42, 69, 72, 82 and 87. The main road that passes the tower is called Quai Branly and also conveniently enough, the tower is stategically placed next to a bridge which crosses to the north side of the Seine. With regards to travel I would recommend a travel pass which covers the whole city for bus, rail and metro for a very reasonable cost thus reducing confusion and time wasting.

All children under three years of age are admitted free of charge.

The ground floor............

The first floor............

The second floor............

I was very much looking forward to going up the Eiffel Tower and although my visit was slightly tarnished by bad weather I enjoyed the visit immensely. It's a thing everyone must do in their lifetime because the experience can be very exhilerating and romantic. Remember to take a camera with you to capture the moment. I thought the pricing was very fare, 1 euro is roughly 65 pence so a trip to the top is basically around £6.30 which was way under what I thought I would have to part with. The amount of people on each level is limited so you will never have to fight your way around through hourdes of people. One thing I did do and would recommend to others planning a visit is to get there early before the queues start to get too long although I don't believe the attraction has a queue problem because the turnover is quite high. The whole experience should take around an hour and a half, maybe longer if you've booked a table in one of the restaurants. The countless souvenir shops offer many an opportunity to commemorate your visit at a reasonable cost. So if your in Paris or in France for that matter make sure you visit this little treasure and become part of it's history - you won't be disappointed.