1 View from the Top Hello monsieur Jaden bowed to the statue Grace shook her head at her younger brother But she smiled and snapped a picture as he talked to the figure carved from wax The white-haired bearded man in a suit looked like a real person In the scene Gustave Eiffel was seated gesturing to another man The second statue was of the American inventor Thomas Edison A woman in a long dark red dress and fancy hat watched them She was Eiffel’s adult daughter forever standing and watching the two men The scene commemorated Edison’s visit to the Eiffel Tower in Paris They were in a small office at the top of the tower Jaden turned Come on let’s go outside Grace followed her brother and their friend and neighbor Sophie Sophie was fifteen five years older than Grace and seven years older than Jaden She was hired to look after them that summer Sophie lived her whole life in Paris France
Because she was a local Grace and Jaden’s parents allowed Sophie to take the kids touring in the city She spoke English really well though she had a funny accent Mom said it was because Sophie learned English in England instead of in America They went out onto a platform that surrounded the top level of the Eiffel Tower Grace staggered against the strong winds The floor vibrated beneath her feet They were so high up that the city below didn’t even seem real Fortunately a wire cage surrounded the platform so no one could fall off Sophie still didn’t want to get close to the edge They spent a few minutes looking out over the city Then an announcement came over speakers Sophie reacted to the French before the message was repeated in English They are closing this level because of the winds she said She led the way to the glass-sided elevators and they rode down to the second floor At the railing they looked out over the city They were still high enough up to see far but now they could pick out more detail Stripes of green trees cut through the closely packed buildings Most of the buildings close to the tower were at least four or five stories high They looked tiny from up on the tower Farther in the distance modern skyscrapers rose up The wind blew Grace’s hair around her face The whole tower seemed to sway and she clutched one of the big metal beams She didn’t like being so high even with the railing to prevent a fall Brr Sophie said Let’s go around to the other side and get out of this wind They worked their way past other tourists The river Seine cut through the city not far from the tower The cars on the bridge over the river looked tiny The boats drawn up along each side
On the far side of the river green trees clustered around an open plaza or park A building with lots of columns stretched out in a line behind it What’s that Grace asked The gardens Or the palace behind it The Palais de Chaillot has some museums and a theater It’s not that old though less than a hundred years Jaden laughed That’s really really old Sophie shrugged Not for Paris Not for France You come from a young country Remember what we learned here The Eiffel Tower opened in 1889 And that was the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution When all those people died Jaden said Yes many people died Sophie agreed The peasants rebelled against the nobles They wanted an equal vote and equal rights It was similar to your American Revolution However America was a new country rebelling against the British In France the fight was inside the country poor French against rich French of the river were huge in comparison Grace was impressed by how much Sophie knew about history American as well as French Everything Grace knew about French history she’d learned since moving to France a few weeks before Sophie glanced up at the heavy gray clouds The weather is only going to get worse I hoped to have a picnic lunch and maybe go to the amusement park this afternoon There are boat rides and puppet shows But that will be better saved for a different day We should hurry home before the rain comes A lot of other people seemed to have the same idea and were waiting in a long line for the elevator The children decided to take the stairs They walked down almost 700 steps to the
