A clear view of the tower without that Aaron-guy getting in the way ;)
Eiffel, the designer/creator of the tower, had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit. The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle of the Marne (WWI), and it therefore became a victory statue of that battle.
As the sky darkens, Eiffel gets its 'light' on....
The tower was met with resistance from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. (Novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — supposedly ate lunch at the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where you couldn't see the Tower.) Today, it is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
So we were just walking towards the tower enjoying its splendour, when suddenly it's splendour became even more splendiforous! It started to 'twinkle-twinkle little star' a million miles a minute! (I saw this from the plane as I flew into Paris, but just decided that it was 'seeing the lights of the tower from the air'. Umm...no, it REALLY was sparkling!)
Anyway, we figured out, more or less, just as Big Ben chimes every hour, the Eiffel Tower 'sparkles' every hour ;) Interesting way of keeping track of time...
The insides of the giant!
'Isn't it romantic?...' Actually, it was FREEZING cold, but we braved it and went up to the top! BEAUTY-FULL! With the moon and all...nice....
Back on the ground again, the Ihh-Fell Tour and the moon....need I say more?
