Reservations… and La Tour Eiffel

I welcomed the news with mixed feelings. La Grande Dame de Fer is about to offer online reservations to ascend its tower by the end of 2009. Visitors will be able to enjoy the convenience of booking their tickets online and avoiding delays long queues which could be better spent admiring Paris from the tower’s top level.

During my last visit, it took nearly an hour from joining the tail end of a line of sweaty visitors until the first glimpse of Le Trocadéro from the tower’s first level. Had I not stood in a slow moving queue that snaked its way up and inside La Tour Eiffel, I would have missed out on experiences that peppered my visit with vivid memories.

I would have lost the chance to indulge in a favourite pastime of  people watching and studying human interactions.

I would have missed out on playing the mental game of “guess the country of origin” simply by observing dress code and behaviour in the slow-moving queue.

I would not have heard the endless gunfire-like chatter of the Spanish woman whose husband nodded in silence all the way up the tower.

I would not have spotted the young married couple, presumably on their honeymoon, hands all over one another, stealing kisses and the odd grope, their eyes full of hope and aspirations for the future.

And I certainly would not have been blessed by a visit from my writing muse, when character voices began to speak and flooded me with inspiration for a new chapter in my novel.

Sometimes the joy of travel is through the journey as well as the destination.