The Iron Lady

It was a very long wait for our HOHO bus at the Concorde stop. We were the first ones there and not long after we were joined by a few more. One foreign couple paced up and down the sidewalk, clearly making their dissatisfaction noticed over the tiresome wait in the cold.

Both Abe and Farah had gone to the luxury 5 star Hôtel de Crillon to do what they needed to do. "Toilet dia...berkilat-kilat silau," reported Farah. Well....what would you expect?? This is after all Paris!!

I checked the list of stops and coming up next was the Eiffel Tower. Everyone was excited and when the bus finally came (like after a good 40 mins wait....) we quickly hopped in and climbed onto the upper deck for better views.

As the HOHO bus slowly approached the area of Champs de Mars, we understood then why this steel lady was so popular.

La dame de fer, the iron lady - you couldn't possibly visit Paris without seeing her. The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

Full view from Trocadero area.
The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building.

The structure was built as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution.

Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets. Nissa being given some quick facts about steel structures by Daddy - who is no stranger to such structures. (check out her must-I-listen- to-this-tech-stuff-stories look....)

It was named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel.

It took more than two years to complete the structure. To date, it is the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year.

My personal favourite view of the lady......
Paree....Je t'aime