Hi all,
Today was the one day that said rain on the weather forecast for my entire
visit in Paris. We set off for the metro and caught the purple line 14 stops to
the Champ de Mars. Here we walked together and then sat for a while. Nan loved
the Eiffel Tower, and the three of us sat on a bench and reflected that we
could envisage her and Pa sitting on the same bench looking at the tower on one
of their visits too. We were lucky, at this point it wasn’t really raining. So
we were able to enjoy our walk through the park to our tour meeting point. I had
also brought a cardboard cut out of Nan with me which we took a photo with. I
made this in March 2020 when Mum, Dad and I were supposed to go to Japan, which
never happened due to the pandemic beginning. I had told Nan I would take it to
Japan one day so she had a photo there. Seeing how much she loved Paris, it
felt like I should do it here too!
Robyn and I then joined a tour to ascend the Eiffel Tower. When we looked at
tickets to the summit a month out, they were already booked out. Apparently
Paris is back to pre-pandemic summer visitor numbers this summer. So we had to
book a tour to go to the top. I’m fortunate enough to have now gone up the
tower four times. Robyn had been up once before to the second level with Ian,
but not to the top as Ian doesn’t like heights.
The Eiffel Tower took two years to build and was completed in 1889. It was
built for the World’s Fair like a number of other places we have visited. The
year that it was completed in was symbolic as it was the 100th anniversary of
the revolution. The third republic at the time wanted to show equality and an
even playing field, so ran a competition to design a tower for anyone to enter.
It had three requirements – must be 300m tall, made of iron and easy to
disassemble. 120 submissions were made (including a 300 m tall guillotine and a
300 m tall elephant!), but the competition was rigged really because Gustavo
Eiffel was quite rich, and already had a reputation due to building the iron
interior of the Statue of Liberty. So needless to say, he won.
The agreement with the tower was that Gustave Eiffel had to fund it himself,
but he had a 20 year lease on the tower and its profits. He had to take out a
loan at the time to build the tower, which is estimated by today’s standards to
have been €35 million ($53 million Australian). The loan was for 20 years, but
so many people ascended the tower during the six months of the World’s Fair
that he had already paid off the loan within that time, and became very rich
from all the visitors from that point on!! Back then, in the six months of the
World’s Fair, 2 million people went up the tower. Today, approximately 3.5
million visitors go up the tower per six months. Considering the population of
the world is eight times what it was back then today, it was a pretty amazing
number of visitors for the time.
The third requirement, “easy to disassemble”, thankfully never came into play. In
1898, the tower was used to send a radio signal 4 km away, and did so
successfully. It was then put forward to the government that a larger antenna
be placed on top, so that signals could be sent further, and thus that the
tower remain instead of be disassembled in 1910. This larger antenna went ahead
and proved beneficial, able to send and receive messages from 6000 km away, and
intercepting many German messages during World War I. Once when the Germans
tried to take the tower during the war, the French cut the lift cables, so that
to ascend the Germans would have to climb 1665 stairs instead.
Today, the tower stands as an iconic symbol of Paris. It is constructed from
over 18,000 pieces of iron and 2.5 million rivets. It has the names of 72
contemporaries of Gustave Eiffel around its first level, including engineers,
mathematics, public figures and more. Its 2.5 million square metres of surface
area are painted every seven years with 60 tonnes of a specific coloured paint called “Eiffel Tower
Brown”, which takes a team of 25 people 15 months to do. Due to Covid and
lockdown delays, this process and pre Olympic spruce up is occurring now, and
for the first time ever this is going on during high season. As a result there
was a lot of scaffolding underneath the tower. It was actually quite
interesting to see how it all worked. The paint they use apparently has a special
ingredient that makes it easy to absorb and reflect light, so that the tower can
be lit up any colour very easily.
So as you can see, it was worth being on the tour
to learn a few facts about the tower. And as it turned out, these kept us entertained
while we waited to ascend. The workers union for the tower decided to hold a
meeting this morning and keep us waiting an extra hour to go up. The rain got
heavier during this time but we waited patiently and Robyn and I were both glad
we had brought our coats.
We boarded the funicular to level two. These funiculars were created by the American
Otis brothers, who had to start up a branch in France and employ French people
in order to be allowed to create things for the World’s Fair. They use
hydraulic pumps, and the original pumps are still in place from 1889 which is
pretty amazing. Then had a quick tour around with our guide Maarten. We learned
briefly from him about Georges-Eugene Haussman, who was commissioned by
Napoleon to bring air and light to the city centre in Paris in the 1850s. This sounded
great in practice, but involved the demolition of many medieval neighbourhoods due
to poor conditions and overcrowding to make way for the gorgeous wide avenues,
parks and squares we know today. Montmartre was an after thought and was created
in 1866, which is why its streets are quite different to the rest of Paris. We also
learned that the hideous Montparnasse tower at the end of the Champ de Mars was
built in the 1960s to try and revive the area. Typically the French love symmetry,
but everyone found this building so ugly that the didn’t build the second one
in the end. As a result, a law was made that no building are allowed to be
higher than the typical Parisian buildings within the city of Paris. So Paris has
that one ugly building to thank for the fact that it doesn’t have any others,
and its CBD is further out. I am jealous – we are ruining Melbourne with all
the putrid soulless apartment towers we are building.
Maarten was great, but due to the initial delay we were becoming a bit nervous
due to me having a train to catch later, so we left a little early and went to
the summit together. Despite the rain and clouds, we had fairly good visibility,
and had a quick look around before heading back down. I’m not even scared of
heights but I felt a little weird as we approached the top – Ian made the right
call as he would have hated it!
We met back up with Ian and headed back to the metro and then the apartment. On
the way back, we each bought a delicious sandwich and cake from the local boulangerie.
I am really going to miss the bakeries in Paris, it’s impossible to buy
something bad from them. We enjoyed these back in the apartment and then I packed
up and walked to the metro where I caught the train to the Gare du Nord to
catch the Eurostar to London. Brexit has a lot to answer for, the queues were
huge and despite leaving plenty of time I only made my train by 20 minutes
after clearing passport control etc. I am so close to my goal of filling my passport
– I now have one full page and two half pages left. The French guy flicked
through 36 pages before finding an empty one and looked at me like “seriously?!”.
Oops!
I’m now sitting comfortably on the Eurostar, thinking about how much I love
train travel in Europe. I’ve missed it! I have had a fabulous five days in Paris
with Ian and Robyn. It was fantastic spending some time with them and seeing
and doing some fun Parisian things together. Wandering around in the sun at
leisure and not feeling any pressure to rush to and from places was great as
well. Since the 276458234 lockdowns in Melbourne ended, I haven’t felt like
myself as much. Work has been hard with the impact of the lockdowns on the kids
being so clear, and being the person putting supports in place for them. The
few days I have had in Paris have been truly soul restoring.
I am now en route to London, visiting for the first time since my year living
there in 2015. I am staying with my friends Alisha and Shannon. I haven’t seen
Alisha since the end of 2016 when we went to New York with Shannon and Jess,
and I haven’t seen Shannon since he visited Melbourne on Christmas Day in 2017.
There will be tears tonight when we are reunited finally! I attempted two trips
over the last two years which of course were cancelled, and Alisha is now
pregnant and due in November. It’s going to be so special seeing them and
spending some time together, and revisiting some of my favourite places in
London too.
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox
No comments:
Post a Comment