La Tour Eiffel

Presenting...

Yup, it exists.

One of the most common pieces of trivia I heard and read about Paris when we were getting ready for the move was that the Eiffel Tower was strongly disliked after its construction. According to Wikipedia, people thought it was an eyesore. It was supposed to come down after 20 years, but the city of Paris kept it because it was useful for radio antennas and such.

I certainly have no reason to doubt the veracity of this history. But the interesting thing is that you often (especially in snarky guidebooks) see this anecdote used as a way to illustrate the cultural overzealousness of the French. As the thinking goes, the French are so snobby that they wanted to demolish perhaps the most iconic structure in the world because it didn't match the drapes. If they wanted to do that, no wonder they... (insert your gripe about the French here).

It's out to destroy Paris!

Well, here's the thing... I can kind of sympathize with the turn of the century Parisians. Margaret and I did an epic walking tour of Paris on Sunday (I think we visited approximately 36 arrondissements) that included many, many beautiful buildings. So far, that's been the most impressive thing about Paris to me- there are so many old, impressive buildings that you get the feeling the Parisians don't even know what some of them are for. Anyway, during this tour, we saw the Eiffel Tower from many different angles, including from the base. And it is disconcerting at times to turn a corner and see a glorified, brown radio tower looming over the endless avenues of perfect buildings. Not all of the other buildings are the same style, but none of them seem as different as the Eiffel Tower. Nor as big- it's hard to overstate how much taller it looks than anything else (other than la Tour Montparnasse).

Not that I'm advocating bringing it down. Despite the jarring effect, it is pretty cool to see it from all over town. There would be random moments when we would turn a corner and glimpse the top, and it always brought a little bit of a thrill.