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July 2005

Paris

Jeremy Koh
2005-11-05 12:16:49

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the Eiffel Tower was lined with Chinese eateries and in our starved condition, we decided to grab some Chinese food. I ordered rice with two dishes. What a shock I got. The bill came up to more than �10. Apparently they peg the price of the food according to how much it weighs. That's something new to me. Anyway, to cut costs, Prema decided to just get rice and share the dishes with me.

And so we walked on down the lovely neighborhood. After what seemed like an eternity in our famished state, we finally ended up in the Parc du Champs de Mars, which is a rectangular park which stands between the Eiffel Tower and École Militaire, a military school. We found a bench to sit down and have lunch in front of the symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.

After lunch, we starting walking down the Champs de Mars towards the Eiffel Tower. But before we reach the tower, there is a Wall of Peace which was installed in 2000. This wall of peace was inspired by the wailing wall of Jerusalem, and visitors can put their messages of peace in the chinks of the walls. Nice touch, but of course, our real motive in coming here is to go up the Eiffel Tower.

And so we continued walking. Finally we arrived at the base of the tower. There was a huge crowd and lots of people were queuing up to ascend the tower. There are basically four pillars for people to ascend the tower but on the day that we went, one of the pillars was closed. Apparently, admission rotates from pillar to pillar on different days. Of the remaining three pillars, two were for elevator access and the other was the stairway. To save money, we decided to climb the stairs (�3). And so we started queuing up. It took us at least half an hour. And all this while, the weather was acting weirdly. One moment, the clouds would come out, and the cold winds would blow, then the next, it was all warm and sunny again.

Finally, the moment has arrived. ...