Oh why do things have to change? Why oh why ?
Ive just come back from a lovely 2 day break in Paris accompanied by Mother Rubi Red. It must be aleast 20 years that i last went to Paris on a school trip, but i distictly remember our teachers making us take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower. How could i forget? Most of us nearly passed out in the soaring 30+ heat, gagging for water and for breath, whilst the teachers whistled past us in the elevator to the top.
So i approached the Effel Tower some 20 years later with some intrepidation, walking shoes and bottle of water at the ready ( but no breathing appatatus)
"un billet pour les escaliers a lá summit, s'il vous plait monsieur"
" uurrrrrr No im sorry you can only take the stairs to the 2nd floor and then take the lift to the top"
No stairs to the top?? How could this be ?? and how could the French person reply back in English when i had spent all bout 2 mins perfecting my pigeon french.
It all came back to me now some 20 years ago. There was hardly any protection from the gusts of wind and bits where a 4 foot nothing person could easily slip through the iron girders close to the stairs. Fear was the last thing on my mind then
Ive just come back from a lovely 2 day break in Paris accompanied by Mother Rubi Red. It must be aleast 20 years that i last went to Paris on a school trip, but i distictly remember our teachers making us take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower. How could i forget? Most of us nearly passed out in the soaring 30+ heat, gagging for water and for breath, whilst the teachers whistled past us in the elevator to the top.
So i approached the Effel Tower some 20 years later with some intrepidation, walking shoes and bottle of water at the ready ( but no breathing appatatus)
"un billet pour les escaliers a lá summit, s'il vous plait monsieur"
" uurrrrrr No im sorry you can only take the stairs to the 2nd floor and then take the lift to the top"
No stairs to the top?? How could this be ?? and how could the French person reply back in English when i had spent all bout 2 mins perfecting my pigeon french.
It all came back to me now some 20 years ago. There was hardly any protection from the gusts of wind and bits where a 4 foot nothing person could easily slip through the iron girders close to the stairs. Fear was the last thing on my mind then
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