The Tower is best done from the Left Bank, on foot, in the last hour of daylight. Approach it down the Champ de Mars and you watch it grow; the iron turns from grey to gold, and then, on the hour after dark, it breaks into five minutes of silver sparkle that no photograph has ever done justice.
Come out at École Militaire and walk the lawns. Find a patch of grass two-thirds down and let the light drop. Then in under the four feet for the view straight up — stranger and bigger than any postcard, and free. Cross the Pont d'Iéna toward the Trocadéro, turn around for the full-height view, then drop to the quay at the Port de Suffren and walk downstream with the river boats and the Tower over your shoulder.
Cut back to rue Saint-Dominique for a brasserie table and the Tower framed at the end of the street — a good place to wait out the next sparkle on the hour. Bir-Hakeim metro is a short walk west when you're ready.
