On the Eiffel Tower you are prohibited from attaching padlocks to the protective cages.

This is a thing all over Paris – couples attaching padlocks to (mostly) bridges, and then throwing the key in the water as a sign of everlasting love. The most well known bridge for this activity was the Pont des Arts, where a million locks weighing about 45 tonnes were cut off last year. 

The panoramic views from the tower are spectacular, even from the second level which is as high as we were able to go due to overcrowding at the top.

Here is a view looking down on the flooded Seine. 

Rather than give you views from the tower I thought I’d focus on the tower itself. We took an elevator to the second level, but chose to walk down the 700 steps so we could take a closer look at the tower construction. Here are some shots I took on the way down. 

Because Euro 2016 is being hosted here there is currently a large football suspended between the first and second floors. This is the view looking straight up at it.