Saturday 29 May 1999. A smaller page than some of the others, but I felt that the one main symbol of Paris should have a page all to itself! We are having a look at the Eiffel Tower prior to having a bit of time to ourselves to wander around or just sit at a cafe table watching the world go by.
The paintwork was duller than I expected - though why I should have expected a "sparkling" tower I have no idea! But the tower does not disappoint at all, though sadly there was no time to go up to admire the view from the viewing platforms.
The weather was scorching and the roses in the flower beds added a dramatic touch of red to the photo above, though there was no way of having both roses and an uninterrupted view of the tower.
I was by now sporting a baseball cap with 'Paris' emblazoned on it, bought from one of the kiosks along the banks of the River Seine. Otherwise the old bald head would have been glowing enough to confuse drivers at night...
Ok, time for a bit about the tower itself! Twice as high as Blackpool's but without the house of fun at the bottom - 'Nowt to take brass' (Nothing to take money) is how the Blackpool owners thought of the french inspiration for their own tower - it was designed by Gustav Eiffel for the World's Fair of 1889. The structure appalled many Parisians and there were protests against it. But for it being such as success as a platform for a radio antenna it would have been demolished in 1909.
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