Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower, Paris
The Eiffel Tower is the most recognizable landmark in Paris, France, and is known worldwide as a symbol of France. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it is a premier tourist attraction in Paris, with over 5.5 million visitors per year.
Eiffel Tower, Paris, is located in the 7 th arrondissement. For Paris hotels and apartments in this Paris arrondissement or rooms overlooking Eiffel Tower, Paris see Paris Hotels, Paris Apartments pages.
Facts.
Date opened to public: May 15, 1889, during Universal Exposition celebrating 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.
Owners: The City of Paris
Height: 324 meters (with antenna)
First Floor: 57.63m
Second Floor: 115.75m
Third Floor: 276.13m
Weight: Metal framework weight: 7,300 tons
Total weight: 10,000 tons
Dimensions of Base: 125m square
Number of steps to the top: 1,665 from the ground to the top (however, steps from the second floor to the top are closed to the public).
Movement: Wind force causes the top of the tower to sway 6 – 7 centimeters
Visibility on a clear day: 67 kilometers (42 miles).
Tallest Structure in the World: 1889-1930 (until Chrysler Building ).
2nd Tallest Structure in the World: 1930-1932 (Until Empire State Bldg).
Number of names of French scientists written on the sides of the tower: 72.
Construction: 1887 – 1889 (Two years, two months and two days).
Rivets: 2,500,000.
Steel pieces: 18,038.
Number of steel workers: 300.
Number of workers killed during construction: 1 (He was showing off for his girlfriend at the end of the day).
Cost to build: 7,800,000 gold francs (in 1889).
Contractor: Gustave Eiffel.
Engineers: Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier.
Architect: Stephen Sauvestre.
Workmen: 50 engineers
100 ironworkers
121 workers at construction site
Number of visitors since opening: 204,381,152 by the end of 2002.
Electricity: 7,500,000 kilowatt hours per year.
Water: 65,000 m 3 per year.
Elevators: Approximately 100,000 kilometers traveled per year.
Paint: Repainted every 5 years, requiring 50 tons of paint.
First radio transmission: 1918.
First TV transmission: 1957.
Illumination:
1889: During the evening of the tower’s inauguration, 10,000 gas street lamps adorned the steeple and platforms. Two projectors on the tower top illuminated the other Parisian monuments below. The blue, white and red beacon lights were considered the most powerful in the world.
1900: Electricity arrives at the Eiffel Tower, as 3,200 lamps spotlight its framework and decorative arches.
1925-1936: André Citroën adds the first decorative lighting display to the tower. As an ad campaign, the name Citroën is sculpted from 250,000 colored lamps, which adorns three sides of the tower and is visible 30 kilometers away.
1985, New Year’s Eve: Inauguration of a new lighting system, the final phase of a comprehensive restoration program, initiated by the city of Paris in 1980. The gold-toned, twinkling lighting system comprises 352 sodium lamps mounted on the inside of the tower.
2000, New Year’s Day: The Eiffel Tower is adorned in festive lighting composed of 20,000 spots and a beacon projector on the tower top.
2001, New Year’s Day: For the New Year, blue filters are placed over the lamps, allowing the sparkling lights to take on blue sapphire tones.
2001, July 14: The glittering light system is dismantled.
2003, June 21: The Eiffel Tower, Paris, is once again covered in diamond-sparkling lights that are displayed for five minutes, every hour on the hour, from dusk until 2 a.m. ( 1 a.m. in winter).
The two light beams at the top of the tower can be seen up to 80km away. The beacon is composed of four marine-type, motorized projectors, operated by automatically piloted computer programs. Their rotation sweep is 90°, so they are synchronized to form a double beam in a cross that pivots around 360°. The 6,000-watt lamps, which last for approximately 1200 hours, are cooled to prevent overheating and also heated when the temperatures drop below zero centigrade and the lights are off.
Who knows what is going to follow in this new Paris of XXI!
Miscellaneous Facts:
Scam: In 1925, con artist Victor Lustig sells the Eiffel Tower, Paris, for scrap.
Tallest title lost: In 1929, the Tower loses the title of the world’s tallest structure when the Chrysler Building is completed in New York.
Bomb: In 1986, during a period when Paris was suffering a wave of terrorist activity, a janitor discovers a bomb at the top of the Eiffel Tower, Paris. Fortunately the bomb is defused — as it was powerful enough to have blown off the whole top of the tower.
Strike: In 1996, the Eiffel Tower, Paris is closed for five days when workers go on strike demanding staff parking facilities and a shorter workweek. The strike is thought to have cost the tower more than $500,000.
Mata Hari: During WWI, the tower’s radiotelegraphic center is used to intercept enemy messages, one of which led to the arrest and execution of the infamous Danish dancer and spy, Mata Hari.
Hitler: When Hitler visits occupied Paris in 1940, the lift cables of the tower are cut by the French so he would have to climb the 1,792 steps to the summit. The part needed to repair them was allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war, though it was working again within hours of the departure of the Nazis. Hitler chose to stay on the ground.
The Creation of Eiffel Tower, Paris
Competition
Had it not been M. Gustave Eiffel who won the $800 first-place prize in the design competition for 1889′s Exposition Universelle, the Paris skyline would look very different today.
On May 2, 1886, the Centennial Exposition Committee invited French architects and engineers to submit building designs for the upcoming World Fair in Paris, which was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Despite a short deadline, more than 100 proposals poured in—ranging from the banal to the bizarre.
One design resembled a massive guillotine, which the committee felt was taking the French Revolution theme a little too far. Another entrant favored utility over grandiosity, suggesting a tower shaped like a giant water sprinkler, which could be used to water Paris in case of a drought. Yet another entry proposed a monumental, 1,000-foot granite lighthouse, which, the designers claimed, would be so powerful that people in even the most remote sections of Paris would receive enough light to read a newspaper at night.
Fortunately for millions of future tourists, many of the contending designs were deemed unworkable or insufficiently researched, and M. Eiffel made a compelling case for his 300-meter iron tower. Civilizations had been building with stone for centuries, Eiffel argued, and the only way to truly symbolize France ‘s significant technological and economic progress was with a new material: metal. In describing his vision, Eiffel said that only metal could make the tower “seem to spring out of the ground and somehow be molded by the action of the wind itself.” He also stressed his tower’s usefulness in such areas as meteorology and optical telegraphy; its certain popular success and relatively modest cost; and finally, the certainty that his tower could realistically be constructed.
But when the exposition committee finally declared the Eiffel Tower, Paris, to be the winning design, there were plenty of skeptics who questioned whether what Eiffel proposed on paper could actually be made a reality. After all, the tallest tower in the world at the time was the Washington Monument at 555 feet, and it had taken (including an interruption for the Civil War) more than 36 years to construct. Eiffel’s colossal 1,000-foot tower would dwarf the American obelisk—and he had less than two years to finish the project.
Although confident that his tower would be successful, Eiffel would have been justified in harboring some momentary doubts. The contract awarded him by the committee stated that Eiffel himself, not his company, was solely responsible for the entire tower project, including its construction, financing and maintenance during the exhibition. In return for his work, Eiffel would receive the sum of 1.5 million francs, as well as all income derived from the commercial use of the tower for a period of 20 years following the close of the exhibition.
The grant of 1.5 million francs would not begin to cover the cost of completing the project, which was estimated at 6 million francs. Nonetheless, Eiffel accepted the risky terms of the agreement, and on January 1, 1887 —despite continuous growling from the naysayers—he took possession of the designated site on the Champ de Mars and prepared to build his tower.
The Preparations
Eiffel’s design specified a 300-meter, 7,000-ton wrought-iron tower, with a base measuring 125 square meters. There would be a 4,200-square-meter glass-paneled gallery on the first level; a 900-square-meter gallery on the second level; and a 250-square-meter glass-paneled dome on the third level, with a balcony offering a spectacular view from the Bois de Boulogne to Vincennes.
An expert on the characteristics of various metals by this point in his career, Eiffel had decided that wrought iron was the only available material that would provide the necessary combination of strength, flexibility, durability and affordability to make his design a reality.
The main issue Eiffel had wrestled with in his design was how to protect the tower from the wind, as the lattice beams he was accustomed to using on the bridges he constructed would not work here. Instead, Eiffel designed the tower with a series of lattice-trussed piers with incurving edges, with the curvature of the uprights mathematically determined to provide the most efficient wind resistance possible. His design proved to be engineering genius as the tower has never swayed more that 9 centimeters in even the strongest winds, and many of today’s skyscrapers are constructed in much the same way.
First put to paper back in 1884, the tower design had been revised many times, with Eiffel carefully calculating each aspect to insure that every beam, bolt and hole would be as precise as possible. However, the location the committee had selected for his project introduced a whole new set of challenges.
When Eiffel ordered soil samples from the site on which he was to build, he discovered that the land to the south and east of the spot was firm and suitable for his purpose, while the land to the north and west consisted of soft, mucky soil that was less than an ideal base for the foundations of the massive tower. Additionally, this area was close to the Seine and faced the constant threat of flooding.
Eiffel decided the only solution was to use two different systems to set the tower’s foundation piers—a dry foundation system for the south and east and a compressed air system for the area closest to the Seine. And by digging the riverside foundations sixteen feet deeper than those on the dry side, Eiffel calculated that the piers would be stable enough to support the weight of the massive structure.
At last the time for committees and calculations had come to an end, and construction of Eiffel’s magnum opus could begin.
The Construction
Considering the magnitude of the tower project, Eiffel’s work crew was quite small, never exceeding 250 at any one time. More than 5,000 mechanical drawings depicting 18,038 different parts of the tower had been created before the first beam was lifted in order to eliminate all guess work during the actual construction. Due to this extraordinarily detailed planning, Eiffel was able to set new standards for accuracy in design and speed of construction with only a modest work force.
But for all of Eiffel’s careful planning and concern for safety, the men still faced challenging work conditions. In addition to working on what was to be the tallest structure in the world, the crew was also required to adjust to new equipment and technology, much of which had never been used before.
The construction process was infused with Eiffel’s exceptional innovation from the very beginning. To install the riverside foundations, Eiffel used injected compressed air and watertight, metal caissons, which are generally used in underwater construction. The workers could climb down into a caisson, which was like an underground room, and work below the level of the Seine, using pickaxes to break up the soil that the caisson itself had loosened. As they removed the soil, the 34-ton caissons would sink deeper and break up more soil and rocks for the workers to remove.
Once the digging was complete, the workmen poured 20 feet of quick-drying cement into each hole to provide a base for the foundation piers. The cement was topped with massive blocks of limestone, which were then capped by two layers of cut stone from the Château Landon quarry. The same quarry had provided stone for two other well-known Parisian monuments — the Arc de Triomphe and Sacré Coeur.
For further stability, an iron base called a shoe was bolted to each stone. Here Eiffel added another innovative touch to his design, placing a piston in the hollow of each shoe, which could be moved by water released under pressure. The pistons, acting as hydraulic jacks, could raise or lower each of the sixteen caissons under the foundation piers, ensuring that the tower would be in perfect alignment.
By the end of June 1887, the tower’s foundation was complete, and curious spectators would finally watch the tower start to take shape. In order to ensure that every hole and rivet was in exactly the right spot, Eiffel’s construction plan called for each element of the tower to be formed separately at his factory in Levallois-Perret. Each of the more than 18,000 parts used to build the tower was traced out to an accuracy of a tenth of a millimeter and then assembled in pieces measuring about five meters each and weighing no more than three tons.
Every day, the finished iron pieces arrived at the building site by horse-drawn wagons from the shop on the outskirts of Paris. Thanks to Eiffel’s precise system, there was never any need for last minute checking; once on site, the pieces were simply lifted into position by steam-powered cranes.
As the tower gradually began to rise, Eiffel implemented yet another innovation, without which the project would probably not have been completed. Creeper cranes were installed on the sloping tracks inside the piers with arms that could lift construction material from the ground to the tower’s higher platforms. The machines could pivot 360 degrees and could move up the tracks as the work progressed. Without the creeper cranes, it would have been almost impossible to hoist the necessary material to the top of the giant tower.
Slowly the tower grew, reaching 92 feet by October 10, 1887, and 380 feet by July 14, 1888, when the tower was the scene of many festivities in honor of Bastille Day. But work quickly resumed, as there now remained only eight short months until the opening day of the World Fair.
Now, throughout the hot summer months, the workers would have to put in twelve-hour days to finish the tower on schedule. Nothing escaped Eiffel’s attention in his determination to ensure speed and efficiency; when he realized that the workers’ lunch hours were wasting valuable time because it now took so long to climb down and back up the soaring tower, he had a canteen built on the first level of the tower.
As construction neared the top of the tower, Eiffel had to adjust his building methods once again. A steam-powered winch would lift materials placed in its hooks and ropes from the ground to the first level. From there, a second winch would transport the material to a third winch, installed on a platform 650 feet above the ground, which then passed the pieces to the creeper cranes. Visitors would watch in amazement as the entire process of lifting material from the ground to the highest elevation took only 20 minutes.
The final critical element of the construction process was the installation of the elevator system, which was the only job that Eiffel had to subcontract. Because the powerful hydraulic technology he insisted on using was less than a decade old, and because he had relatively little control over the project, Eiffel was more nervous about this aspect of the construction than any other. Yet it seemed a necessary evil, as Eiffel realized it was unlikely many visitors would be willing to climb 1,665 steps to reach the top of the tower.
The addition of elevators was further complicated by the inclination of the tower’s legs, which meant the elevator cars would have to travel on curved tracks aligned at different angles. The elevators would also have to carry a large number of people and be in continuous use, so Eiffel would accept nothing less than the best technology of the time. In the end, Eiffel hired three different companies — two French and one American — to accomplish the task.
After months of arduous labor and uncertainty, the tower was finally near completion. By early 1889, all that remained were a few finishing touches to prepare for the thousands of visitors expected at the exposition.
On the third floor balcony, two powerful spotlights were mounted and positioned to illuminate different monuments around Paris. At the very top of the tower was an electric beacon with a range of nearly 120 miles. The beacon was enclosed in a cylinder of red, white and blue prisms, the French national colors, and was timed to flash every ninety seconds. Finally, the tower was painted in Barbados bronze, a reddish brown color, which was applied in progressively lighter shades from bottom to top in the hopes of making the tower look even taller.
And then it was over. Through criticism and ridicule, one fatality, a workers strike and even a lawsuit, Eiffel had seen his dream through to reality. He had not only made his deadline, but he’d finished the project with a final price tag 6 percent under the $1.6 million he had estimated.
On May 15, 1889, the Eiffel Tower, Paris, was finally opened to the public. During the six months the exposition ran, nearly two million people came to explore and admire Eiffel’s engineering triumph. The only area to which visitors were denied access was a little spiral staircase rising from the third floor of the tower to M. Eiffel’s private apartment. Modest rooms for such a celebrated gentleman, but they allowed the artist to live in his masterpiece.
The Controversy about the Eiffel Tower, Paris
“…Imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack….”
It’s hard to believe that these words were once used to describe what today is considered to be the world’s best-known monument—an icon that brings historic, exotic Paris to life in the minds of people everywhere. But in a letter published in the newspaper Le Temps in 1887, the gigantic black smokestack in question was indeed the Eiffel Tower, Paris.
Protest and controversy surrounded Gustave Eiffel’s tower from the moment the creator proposed his ambitious project. Certainly at the time of its construction, the Eiffel Tower, Paris seemed incongruous in a city adorned with some of the world’s finest, stone architecture. But the tower was being built for the 1889 World Fair, intended to showcase the significant progress France had made in engineering and technology in the 100 years since the French Revolution. For an event dubbed the “Universal Exposition of the Products of Industry,” the exhibition committee had considered the edgy, iron monument to be entirely appropriate.
Many of the citizens of Paris disagreed. Among the most vocal of the detractors was a group of 47 self-proclaimed defenders of the city’s cultural standards, including artists, writers, poets and sculptors, who joined forces to prevent the construction of Eiffel’s tower. The critics initially doubted the design could actually be brought to reality, so their protest did not reach fever pitch until ground was actually broken.
On February 14, 1887, with construction barely begun, the Artist’s Protest was officially launched with the publication in Le Temps of the “Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel .” The letter was addressed to M. Alphand, the director of works for the World Fair, and was signed by numerous artistic luminaries of the time, including Charles Garnier (designer of the Paris opera house), Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Gounod and Francois Coppée.
The opponents counted among France ‘s most creative minds, and as such, Eiffel’s beloved design was pelted with every manner of insult. The proposed tower would be a “belfry skeleton” (Paul Verlaine), “a truly tragic street lamp” (Leon Bloy), “a half-built factory pipe, a carcass waiting to be fleshed out with freestone or brick, a funnel-shaped grill, a hole-riddled suppository” (Joris-Karl Huysmans), a “mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed” (Francis Coppée). According to the protestors, were the tower to be constructed, it would undoubtedly make Paris and its residents the laughingstock of the entire world.
The war being waged was one of art versus engineering. In the late nineteenth century, engineers were considered uneducated, crass—certainly not possessing of any aesthetic sensibilities. The artists were therefore taken aback when Eiffel granted Le Temps an interview, in which he articulately and passionately defended his design against the onslaught from France ‘s cultural elite.
In his rebuttal, Eiffel expressed surprise that the artists had waited so long to make known their concerns—nearly two years after his design had been submitted to the Centennial Exposition Committee. The artists had undoubtedly been acquainted with the proposed tower, as one of their number, M. Charles Garnier, had been a member of the exposition committee. And at the time, Garnier had posed no objections to the project.
Eiffel also defended the aesthetics of his tower, saying, “…The curves of the four arises (arches) of the monument…will give an impression of beauty because they will demonstrate to the viewer the boldness of the conception.”
As for the protestors’ argument that the Eiffel Tower would overshadow the other historic monuments of Paris, Eiffel threw M. Garnier’s own words back at him by asking if his Opéra did not appear crushed by the houses surrounding it, rather than vice versa. This had been a persistent complaint of M. Garnier, referring to the apartment buildings that encircled his masterpiece.
Finally, Eiffel touted the scientific utility his tower would serve, arguing that it was just as important for France to be viewed by the world as a nation of technical accomplishment and progress, as it was to be lauded as a cultural and artistic Mecca.
His case well made, Eiffel won the first round. The exhibition committee stood firmly behind Eiffel, and despite the artists’ eloquent protest, construction of the tower proceeded.
However, the controversy was soon re-ignited when citizens living close to the worksite expressed fear that pieces of the tower might come crashing through their roofs, and one resident sued the city of Paris to halt the project. Construction was suspended for several months until Eiffel, desperate to get back to work, agreed to personally assume all liability should anything go wrong during construction—even agreeing to destroy the tower at his own expense should it prove to be dangerous in any way.
The embattled Eiffel tower, Paris finally opened in 1889 to significant popular success. But by the early 1900s, Eiffel’s tower was once again the center of debate. Demanding the tower be destroyed, opponents argued that since the 1889 World Fair was long over and the tower had lost its novelty, there was no justification for allowing an “industrial” construction to remain in Paris. At the time, there were very few who would defend the tower on the basis of aesthetics, and it was only due to its exceptional suitability for scientific research that the Eiffel Tower, Paris, was once again spared.
For the rest of his life, Guy de Maupassant would declare that the reason he left France was to get away from the Eiffel Tower. But today, millions of people travel from all over the world just to get a glimpse of M. Eiffel’s much-maligned tower.
Reproductions and Imitations
Several reproductions of the Eiffel Tower, Paris (often smaller-scale) are found in:
• Tokyo, Japan called the Tokyo Tower (13 meters higher than the original, scale 1.04:1)
• Blackpool, England – Blackpool Tower is not a free-standing structure; it stands atop the Tower Ballroom complex, and does not have the four “legs” of the original.
• Guatemala City, Guatemala – Torre del Reformador, 75 meters tall
• Paradise, Nevada, near Las Vegas, USA (scale 1:2)
• Prague, Czech Republic (scale 1:5), Petrinska rozhledna, built in 1891
• Shenzhen, China (scale 1:3)
• King’s Island theme park, Ohio (scale 1:3)
• an imitation in front of Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, 540 feet high (scale 1:2).
• Wembley Park, London – Watkins’ Tower
Eiffel Tower, Paris, Working hours
| Every day
From January 1 *except from April 3 to 18, From June 19 From August 30 |
Lift
9:30 am – 11:00 pm 9:00 am – midnight 9:30 am – 11:00 pm |
Stairs
9:30 am – 18:30 pm 9:00 am – midnight 9:30 am – 18:30 pm |
Security measures
The Eiffel Tower as a well-frequented historical monument must ensure the safety of its visitors.
On an exceptional basis, all or part of the visitor-accessible spaces could be closed and hand bags checked. No large-sized hand baggage nor animals will be allowed onto the monument except for Seeing Eye dogs. Furthermore, there is no baggage check service available at the Tower.
Coming up
Visitors may climb the stairs or take the elevators to go up the Eiffel Tower.
The stairs are open to the public and go up to the second floor (120 meters).
Three elevators (north, west and east pillars) go up to the first and second floors. Only one or two will be in service on any given day due to maintenance and security reasons.
To reach the top of the Tower (280 meters), visitors must take another elevator from the second floor. During the peak visitor seasons, be forewarned that the wait may be consequential.
Handicapped people – in wheelchairs, or the physically disabled – can go to the 1st and 2nd floors by elevator. For security reasons, the top of the Eiffel Tower is not accessible to them.
Eiffel Tower , Paris Entrance Fees
Adults
Elevator
| 1 st floor: | 4,00 € |
| 2 nd floor: | 7,30 € |
| Top: | 10,40 € |
Children under 12
Elevators
| 1 st floor: | 2,20 € |
| 2 nd floor: | 4,00 € |
| Top: | 5,70 € |
Stairs
| One single rate: (Up to 2 nd floor). |
3,50 € |
No charge for children 3 years and younger.
Group rates 2004
Read on and find out more about reduction options.
Information – Service Groups:
Tel: 33 (0) 1 44 11 23 11
Fax: 33 (0) 1 44 11 23 22
Mail: groupes@toureiffel.fr
Group of adults
Groups of adults, a minimum 25 people, can profit from group rates, directly at the entry gates, without preliminary formalities during the following periods:
From January 1 to March 31, 2004 and from November 1 to December 31, 2004
1 st floor: – 3,80 €
2 nd floor: – 6,90 €
Top: – 9,90 €
One free entry for every group of 25 purchasing tickets.
From April 1 to October 30, 2004
1 st floor: – 4,00 €
2 nd floor: – 7,30 €
Top: – 10,40 €
One free entry for every group of 25 purchasing tickets.
No group rates available for stair access: 3,50 € each, access to first and second floor stairways.
Group of children
Groups of 20 young people aged 3 to 17 can enter at the reduced child entry rate, no prior arrangements necessary.
Each person accompanying 10 young people can enter at the reduced rate. Additional guides pay the full rate.
These conditions apply every day except Saturdays, Sundays and French national holidays. No charge for children 3 years and younger.
Except for groups of children 3 years and younger. In this case the accompanying persons pay the normal adult rates.
Everyday from January 1 to December 31, 2004 , except weekends and holidays
1 st floor: – 2,20 €
2 nd floor: – 4,00 €
Top: – 5,70 €
Stairs: – 3,50 €
Rates for weekends and holidays
No group rates available for stair access: 3,50 € each, access to first and second floor stairways.
Groups of handicapped adults
Groups of handicapped people, minimum of 5, are offered the following conditions on presentation of a certificate from a specialist organization (hospital, home, educational establishment, etc.):
From January 1 to March 31, 2004 and from November 1 to December 31, 2004 , group rates available.
1 st floor: – 3,80 €
2 nd floor: – 6,90 €
Top: – 9,90 €
One free entry for every group of 5 handicapped visitors.
From January 1 to October 31, 2004 , normal adult rates.
1 st floor: – 4,00 €
2 nd floor: – 7,30 €
Top: – 10,40 €
One free entry for every group of 5 handicapped visitors.
Groups of young handicapped 3 to 17 year-olds
Everyday from January 1 to December 31, 2004 , except weekends and holidays, reduced rates available.
1 st floor: – 2,20 €
2 nd floor: – 4,00 €
Top: – 5,70 €
Each person accompanying a group of 5 handicapped, can enter at the same reduced rate.
Normal adult rates apply weekends and holidays.
Handicapped people – in wheelchairs, or the physically disabled – can go to the 1 st and 2 nd floors by elevator.
For security reasons, the top of the Eiffel Tower is not accessible to them.
Eiffel Tower, Paris Restaurants
• Altitude 95
Reservations:
Tel: 33 (0)1 45 55 00 21
Fax: 33 (0)1 47 05 94 40
Commercial Service Mail: tour.eiffel.rv@elior.com
Restaurant Mail: altitude-95.rv@elior.com
• LE JULES VERNE
Reservations (by fax or telephone only):
Tel: 33 (0)1 45 55 61 44
Fax: 33 (0)1 47 05 29 41
Souvenir shops (ground floor)
Souvenir shops offering Eiffel Tower and Paris souvenir items can be found on the ground level at the foot of the pillars, as well as on the first and second floors.
Telephone: 33 (0)1 44 42 01 70
The souvenir shops (second floor)
In three different shops on the second floor, Eiffel Tower and Paris souvenirs are available.
Telephone: 33 (0)1 44 42 01 70
“PARIS TOUR EIFFEL” Post office
On the 1st floor, open every day from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm
Special “Paris Tour Eiffel” postmark.
Sale of postage stamps and philatelic souvenirs from France.
Posting of letters and post cards.
Automatic national and international telephone communications.
Postal financial services (traveler cheques, postal checks, emergency postal checks).
Automatic teller machine.
Telephone: 33 (01) 45 51 05 78.
A note for the American in Paris. Most important!
Walk up this metal monstrosity, and don’t take the cable car! Only by slowly walking up step by step through the belly of this giant monument, can you get a real feel for its history and magnitude. A Tourist Tip! - you can take the cable car down for free – no one checks the tickets on the way down!
Access
• Paris Metro: Trocadéro (9) or Bir-Hakeim (6)
• RER: Champs-de-Mars – Tour-Eiffel (C)