The Eiffel Tower. Such a big part of my life. Don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it, but I manage a company that does skip-the-line tours of the Eiffel Tower. As such, she takes up quite a bit of my time and energy. Not only that, but I’m entering my 5th year of living in Paris, and I have only lived in two neighborhoods: the 7th and the 15th, which both border each side of the Tower.

And my offices have changed from being in the 15th (when I lived in the 7th) to the 7th (when I lived in the 15th), which means I have crossed this exact path countless times.

The lines are always insane, and I don’t think I’ve ever stopped once to think about the fact that I have not had to wait in line to go up the Tower for years and years. Kind of perk. And every now and then – rarely these days – I actually make a trip up the Tower to have a meeting or to do some logistics stuff. And I’m reminded that the view is actually not so bad.

Paris, you’re stinkin’ beautiful.

On this particular day, I was pretty stressed out, needing to make some massive changes to our tour structure in very little time.

And then you stand up on the Tower and look down on these views, and it’s a pretty awe-inspiring city.

And you look down and think, well, at least I’m not standing in that.

They installed a glass floor last year on the first level which was completed last year. It took nearly the same amount of time to add those two strips of glass as it took them to build the entire Eiffel Tower in 1887.