One of the most iconic symbols of the City of Love is the Eiffel Tower, and for every tourist who goes there, it's most certainly on their "must see list". An awesome way to see the tower without the annoying crowds (and get an awesome view of the river too) is to take the Metro to the Iena station (on the 9 train). Using the tower as your guide, walk to the river and along the sidewalk until you get to a gap in the trees. That's where this gorgeous picture was taken.
Still want to get up close and personal with the Tower? You can do that from here too, just walk along the bridge. However, because of construction projects and too many people, I would recommend taking your photo ops by the river rather than at the base of the tower. An added bonus of doing this is that you can get the entire tower in your picture rather than just a portion of it. Also, you'll get a beautiful foreground too with the river.
If you think the Eiffel Tower is pretty in the daytime, then you should really see it lit up at night. As soon as the sun goes down, the entire tower is lit up, making for a gorgeous picture.
One more well kept Eiffel Tower secret? at 5 minutes past every hour (starting at 10 pm when I visited), the Eiffel Tower twinkles for exactly 5 minutes (that's what those brighter lights are). While not too many tourists know about it, it truly is a beautiful sight. When I was there, there was just a little bit of fog around the top of the Tower, giving the whole view a mystical feel. Definitely time your visit to the Eiffel Tower at night correctly because you don't want to be standing around for another hour, waiting for the Tower to twinkle!
