After countless hours running and sleeping in the metro a brief stop at La Defense drew our attention to this beast. 4pm in the afternoon fuelled with the ‘Brits abroad’ syndrome we thought ‘fuck it lets get some day time shots’. No later than 2 minutes after walking into the site did we have to turn round and exit again after realising it was still pretty active with workers clocking off and milling about. So we sacked it off for the day and vowed to do it the next. Fast forward a day, myself and Oli appeared to be the only 2 of us that had enough energy in the 30’c heat that could still be bothered to climb the 200+ meters skywards to the top of the crane. We bid the others farewell for the afternoon and jumped on the metro back over to La Defense and headed up the core stopping every once in a while to wait for the workers lift to pass and to find the gantry that gives access to the crane.
Buckets of sweat and many smiles later we were climbing through the hatch in the drivers cab and straight through the roof of it onto the top. A totally different design to what we are used to over here but made for a nice change. We managed to spend a good 2-3 hours up here just chilling in the sun and having a laugh before I decided a trip to the end of the jib was a good idea. I had managed to take about 5-6 shots at the end of it when I turned back to see Oli up the crows nest and a guy in a shirt and jeans clambering around underneath him. ‘SHiittttttt’ Oli looked back at me and simply shrugged. It didn’t take long to realise there were 2 of them and that they were in fact not police and this was confirmed as we exchanged pleasantries and a handshake halfway out on the jib and then proceeded to bizarrely have a conversation in broken English over a 650ft drop like it was the most normal thing in the world.
It was at this point however the 2 French guys informed us they may have been seen coming in and Police were in the building. A bit of a shitter but we had got what we came for and had no reason to stay up there any longer and waste their time. As we started our descent, shouts from a language we didn’t understand were heard so the autonomous response of “Parlez vous Anglais” from us was met with “non” and then more Frenchness. Once we were back down on the 25th floor at the gantry to the crane we explained the best we could what our motives were and they seemed pretty cool with it. Infact, perhaps a little too cool even taking snaps of each other on the roof (probably so they could update their Facebook profiles later). It was at this point that the whole thing turned into a huge comedy of errors which had us both trying to hold back our laughter for the next 2 hours or so. Remember the 2 French guys still up top? They would not come down and carried on climbing all over it taking in the views, much like we had done a few hours previous. 20 minutes of waiting later and we were joined by 6 or so fire men with shiny chrome helmets. Again our laughter had to be suppressed as it took nearly 10 minutes for them all to learn how to successfully use the megaphone. It would work pointing down but as soon as he raised it skywards to shout to the French guys, nothing happened. Eventually they came down and as we all started to walk to the lift for our free ride down, an over enthusiastic fireman introduced himself……. As a fireman! “Ello…… I am ……. Fireman”. He was pretty cool and looked thrilled to have had the opportunity to be up there. Again, in broken English we conversed for a bit and he asked us both how we are finding Paris and what the views were like from the top etc.
A quick headcount in the tiny lift was 17 including Police, Security, Fire brigade, us and the French guys.
At the bottom the next comedy moment presented itself when the security guy managed to fuck up the revolving turnstile after just 2 spins and we had to exit the site via a hole in the fence! Again, smiles erupted from our faces as by this point you seriously couldn’t make this shit up. Patted down once again and against the wall we were then asked if they could see the photo’s so I pulled my camera out and started to show them. The camera was then taken from me and shown to another police man where I then remembered there were 100+ photos of the Metro system on it too that we had taken previously….. WHOOPS!!!!. Some strange faces were pulled and we were then told “we go to police station now”. A 10 minute drive round the whole of LA Defense later and we had arrived…… at the police station….. that was a 20 second walk across from where we had just been! Booked in with another pat down and our valuables collected the 4 of us sat in a cell for the best part of half an hour. We were asked to delete the photos and given a brief talking to about how tomorrow was Bastille Day and how “we don’t have the time or resources to do anything with you so you can go”. But, we were told not to be seen again…………… up the tower. PERFECT, back into the metro we go. We walked out, smiled and then saw a dog vomit and then eat it. The End.
Buckets of sweat and many smiles later we were climbing through the hatch in the drivers cab and straight through the roof of it onto the top. A totally different design to what we are used to over here but made for a nice change. We managed to spend a good 2-3 hours up here just chilling in the sun and having a laugh before I decided a trip to the end of the jib was a good idea. I had managed to take about 5-6 shots at the end of it when I turned back to see Oli up the crows nest and a guy in a shirt and jeans clambering around underneath him. ‘SHiittttttt’ Oli looked back at me and simply shrugged. It didn’t take long to realise there were 2 of them and that they were in fact not police and this was confirmed as we exchanged pleasantries and a handshake halfway out on the jib and then proceeded to bizarrely have a conversation in broken English over a 650ft drop like it was the most normal thing in the world.
It was at this point however the 2 French guys informed us they may have been seen coming in and Police were in the building. A bit of a shitter but we had got what we came for and had no reason to stay up there any longer and waste their time. As we started our descent, shouts from a language we didn’t understand were heard so the autonomous response of “Parlez vous Anglais” from us was met with “non” and then more Frenchness. Once we were back down on the 25th floor at the gantry to the crane we explained the best we could what our motives were and they seemed pretty cool with it. Infact, perhaps a little too cool even taking snaps of each other on the roof (probably so they could update their Facebook profiles later). It was at this point that the whole thing turned into a huge comedy of errors which had us both trying to hold back our laughter for the next 2 hours or so. Remember the 2 French guys still up top? They would not come down and carried on climbing all over it taking in the views, much like we had done a few hours previous. 20 minutes of waiting later and we were joined by 6 or so fire men with shiny chrome helmets. Again our laughter had to be suppressed as it took nearly 10 minutes for them all to learn how to successfully use the megaphone. It would work pointing down but as soon as he raised it skywards to shout to the French guys, nothing happened. Eventually they came down and as we all started to walk to the lift for our free ride down, an over enthusiastic fireman introduced himself……. As a fireman! “Ello…… I am ……. Fireman”. He was pretty cool and looked thrilled to have had the opportunity to be up there. Again, in broken English we conversed for a bit and he asked us both how we are finding Paris and what the views were like from the top etc.
A quick headcount in the tiny lift was 17 including Police, Security, Fire brigade, us and the French guys.
At the bottom the next comedy moment presented itself when the security guy managed to fuck up the revolving turnstile after just 2 spins and we had to exit the site via a hole in the fence! Again, smiles erupted from our faces as by this point you seriously couldn’t make this shit up. Patted down once again and against the wall we were then asked if they could see the photo’s so I pulled my camera out and started to show them. The camera was then taken from me and shown to another police man where I then remembered there were 100+ photos of the Metro system on it too that we had taken previously….. WHOOPS!!!!. Some strange faces were pulled and we were then told “we go to police station now”. A 10 minute drive round the whole of LA Defense later and we had arrived…… at the police station….. that was a 20 second walk across from where we had just been! Booked in with another pat down and our valuables collected the 4 of us sat in a cell for the best part of half an hour. We were asked to delete the photos and given a brief talking to about how tomorrow was Bastille Day and how “we don’t have the time or resources to do anything with you so you can go”. But, we were told not to be seen again…………… up the tower. PERFECT, back into the metro we go. We walked out, smiled and then saw a dog vomit and then eat it. The End.
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