Thursday, 9 October 2014

€30 million refit for the Eiffel Tower

"It's a process of permanent reflection."

The renovation is part of the city's attempts to promote the tower as more than a top tourist attraction, but as a symbol of the French capital's dynamism and capacity for regeneration.

© ATOUT FRANCE/Jean François Tripelon-Jarry

The deputy-mayor of Paris, Jean-François Martins said: "Originally it was a challenge of engineering innovation; today the challenge is to continue that spirit, by modernising, renovating, reinterpreting the Eiffel Tower while remaining true to its history.

The work has modernised the pavilions on the first floor, introduced access to the outer platform with its spectacular panoramic views of the city to those in wheelchairs. A cinema room shows historic and recent film of the tower.

The project also aims to reduce the tower's carbon footprint by repositioning glass panels to reduce air-conditioning costs in summer, introducing solar panels, installing a rainwater collection system, and using LED lighting.

The renovated floor, however, has a new attraction that is not for the faint-hearted or those with vertigo. Visitors can now stand on a glass floor and see straight down to the ground from a height of 57 metres, rather as they now can on the Aiguille du Midi above Chamonix, although in Chamonix the drop is rather greater.

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