Eifel Tower Twinkling Lighs

when it gets dark, and then for the first few minutes of each hour, not sure until what time, but definitly until at least midnight, and it is quite a sight! have fun in paris!

Just to build on what Tamara said, according to this page on the Eiffel Tower website, the tower is lit up from sunset until 1 am (2 am in the summer) and the glittering lights happen for the first five minutes on the hour, each hour while the lights are on.

If you want to know when the sun sets check out this website. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=195

Pam

The question reminded me of both of my trips to Paris. We also wanted to see the tower lit up, but as it was early in the trip, it was a battle with jet lag to stay up. In June, even at 10:00 at night it is somewhat light in Paris. The lights will be on, just do not expect the sky to be really dark until 11:00 or so.

I did finally stay up late enough to get pictures (wife fell asleep) and discovered a great little thing about Paris. During the day, stop and get yourself a picnic, bread, cheese, wine, maybe a prepared dish, and bring it with you. You will find the park in front of the tower (Champ du Mar?) filled with young locals having picnics, talking, playing boules, generally have a good relaxing time. Mix in, take a few pictures, and enjoy.

Paul, even more fun is the park at night. Everyone is out with their friends enjoying a late night picnic.

You can sit on the lawn and watch the lites. Vendors are out hawking bottles of wine.

Then you can go out and enjoy a late night desert and wander back to your room. Magical!

Jackie, I just returned from 2 weeks in Paris (I want to go back already!) and even tho we were renting an apartment just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, we never did walk over to see the twinkly lights. Why, you ask? Because it was at least 11 pm before it got dark and by then we were too tired to go back out after a full day of walking. From previous trips, however, I have one of the little "blinky" Towers here on my desk at work and I have it going now - it even blinks in color! BTW, it blinks for 10 minutes at the start of each hour, after dark of course, and until 12 or 1 am.

It is plenty dark at 10 pm to see them.

Christy, we just got back from Paris, and dusk did not happen until 10:30 PM.

We would be outside at 10 eating dinner. At about 10:15 the light would just start fading.

So 11 was the 1st opportunity to see the lights.

Steve, yeah, my sentence structure was a little misleading. I meant, shop for your picnic during the day, have it ready to go, and after dark the party starts.

Here is a handy site that gives sunset (and sunrise) times for Paris (you can change it to a number of cities as well. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=195&month=6&year=2009&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1

Note that Sunset does not occur until nearly 10:00 PM

Steve, are you positive they weren't on at 10? The website says they go on after sunset, sunset is before 10 even on the solstice (I just double checked), and when I was there last late May/early June I saw them at 10pm.

Also, Jackie, you asked about them being green...there is a "green initiative" and they will only be twinking for 5 minutes rather than 10 each hour to save energy (actually it doesn't save that much, it's mostly symbolic...)

Christy..........positive! A couple of weeks ago (May 17 to 21st)it was as bright as noon at 10 PM when we were outside eating dinner.

If they had turned the lites on you would have never seen 'em.

We were in Paris May 17, 18 and 19 and they twinkled at 10:00 on the dot. It was not totally dark but enough for a good show. That was a month ago so the days are even longer although as of two days ago they began to be shorter again.

Just got back and it was like the arctic circle, it was still really light at 10:30pm. The first twinkle was at 11

Jeff, I figured it would probably be pushed back to 11 p.m. by June since it was not totally dark at 10 p.m. in the middle of May. Now it should not be but a few weeks before it starts back other way.