Some background: Escaliers is French for stairs. Specifically the ones you climb a step at a time, like on a staircase. Not an escalator, although they sound similar.
To climb the stairs to the Eiffel tower you get in the line marked as “Escaliers – Stairs”. It is a much shorter line than the elevators. Most of the people in front of me are young and fit.
Except for the couple directly before me. This couple is middle-aged and overweight. Their chubby right hands each hold a plastic cup filled with beer. His hair is styled as a mullet and covered by an NFL baseball cap. I suspect they are Americans. They look rather dumb, but that may be me projecting. Or maybe not.
They dutifully wait in line, although the male does make forays around to investigate what is going on. Some glimmer of suspicion may have crossed his mind. Eventually the woman asks and attendant if this is the line for the escalator?! The poor Frenchman must hear the word for stairs and agrees.
I did the right thing and let them know there wasn’t an escalator here. I robbed myself of some good entertainment.
Schadenfreude.