Eiffel Tower
I have particularly vivid memories of when I acquired this revolting miniature of the Eiffel Tower. I was visiting Paris with my partner in the heat of summer – on the occasion of our trip it was 38C. Our travel arrangements had started well, with champagne cocktails at St Pancras Station before catching the Eurostar to Paris but after that things had gone badly downhill.
We had rented an apartment in central Paris just off the Champs Elysee but on arriving there we discovered that we couldn’t get in to the building. There was a security number pad but we didn’t have the number. Instead we had to rifle through our paperwork until we found the phone number of the rental agency – who then provided us with the security number and informed us that once inside we would find a security box with the key to our apartment inside.
Duly instructed we found the key and then proceeded to try and find the apartment. We thought it strange that the building seemed to be occupied primarily by businesses rather than apartments and we couldn’t find a door with a number that corresponded with the number on the key. However the key from the security box had been accompanied with a slip of paper. When we eventually read what was written on it we discovered to our horror that the key was for an apartment in a different building in a different part of Paris altogether.
We had already taken two Metro journeys from the Eurostar terminal to the Champs Elysee and now we had to take two more. Anyone who knows the Paris Metro system knows that it is not very easy to navigate with suitcases and the heat made the journey almost unbearable. The icing on the cake was a long walk up a steep hill to our apartment building.
Drenched in sweat we then discovered that our apartment had no air conditioning, merely a fan that pushed the hot air around. The apartment was on the ground floor and the bed was under a window which faced on to the street. To open the window to benefit from whatever slight breeze might be available meant that we also had to have the curtains open. Given that it was so hot we had to sleep naked this was not really an option. We had no desire to be observed by every passerby on the sidewalk. So we slept in the almost unbearable heat with the window and curtains closed and unable to bear the touch of each other even in the ‘City of Love’.
But there was one consolation. After we settled into our apartment on our first evening we went out for a walk and as we turned a corner there was the Eiffel Tower, lit up and all shiny and glittery in the dark. It may not have been encrusted in fake diamonds as in the miniature but it was nevertheless a magical sight that took our breath away.
The Real Eiffel Tower
Facts about the Eiffel Tower
The tower was completed was completed on March 31, 1889 and was the world’s tallest man-made structure until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York in 1930.
There are 1,665 steps to the top but most people take the lift.
Victor Lustig, one of the world’s most successful con men, ‘sold’ the tower for scrap metal on two separate occasions. He also managed to con Al Capone on another occasion.
The tower was originally intended to stand for only 20 years before being dismantled.
In 2008, Erika Eiffel, born Erika LaBrie, a woman who is an advocate of ‘object sexuality’ married the Eiffel Tower, and changed her name to Erika La Tour Eiffel in honour of her ‘partner’.
The tower is illuminated with 20,000 lightbulbs to make it twinkle every night.
Gustave Eiffel incorporated a private apartment for himself in the tower where he hosted celebrities like Thomas Edison.
During WWII Hitler commanded the tower to be dismantled but the army refused to carry out the order.
There is a champagne bar on the top floor.
Top Attractions in Paris
Eiffel Tower
Arc de Triomphe
The Louvre
Moulin Rouge
Sacré-Cœur
Centre Georges Pompidou
Père Lachaise Cemetery
The Catacombs of Paris
The Musée d’Orsay
Notre-Dame Cathédral