Second Platform of Eiffel Tower

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This photograph was taken on the first floor of the second platform of the Eiffel Tower (the second platform has two floors). You are about 38 stories above the ground in this photograph, which is halfway up the tower.

Yes, I know this is a really dreary-looking picture, but this is the way it actually looked—remember, on my site, you see Paris as it actually appears. You’re looking exactly northwest from the southern corner of the second platform. In the distance is the western corner (the tiny gray sign says Pilier Ouest, “western pillar,” although that is impossible to read here). The buildings on the horizon in the background are skyscrapers at La Défense.

You can see the pieces of paper and other junk that thousands of tourists casually drop onto the ground during their visits to the tower. Most tourists treat Paris like a giant garbage can, throwing down whatever they no longer wish to carry.

You are standing on the lower of two floors on the second platform of the tower in this photo; you can see tourists standing on the upper floor just above this one on the left (the view from the upper floor is not obstructed by a barrier, since the only place you can jump or fall from there is onto the lower floor). The green net above the tourists is a safety net for maintenance workers. Green nets are a constant sight on the Eiffel Tower, like a kind of man-made moss that moves around in tiny spots from place to place, but they have to be there to protect maintenance people in case they fall (it wasn’t always that way, but fortunately for the workers and unfortunately for tourists, it is now).

The bright yellow staircase in the left foreground allows access between the two floors on the platform. The green and gray barrier beyond it hides some remodeling work.

The man dressed in white on the right is part of the kitchen staff for the very chichi and well-rated Jules Verne restaurant, a good but extremely tiny gastronomic restaurant at this level of the tower (reservations required months in advance). The restaurant is located at this corner of the platform, and he was taking a break.

You can see the iron structure of the tower in its chocolate-brown paint on the right.

This was taken on a warm weekday in the fall, late in the afternoon, and the tower was reasonably crowded, even though the major vacation period was just ending. You can see all the litter left by tourists on the ground; I often wonder if they are as inconsiderately boorish at home as they are when they visit Paris.

See also my Eiffel Tower FAQ for more information on this landmark.

Photographed on September 3, 1999.