The Eiffel Tower

Some buildings are made to serve an age. Others outlast time and become the emblem of a whole civilisation. The Eiffel Tower belongs to the second kind.

For a first-time visitor, catching sight of it from a distance is a memory that stays. But for travellers who have come back to Paris many times, the tower is no longer simply a photograph. It is an old friend, different in every season: soft in spring among the green, brilliant under the long summer light, romantic in the yellow of autumn, and unearthly in the winter mist.

Standing beneath it, looking up at 18,038 metal parts fitted together, you do not see only a structure. You see invention, nerve, and a confidence in the future.

An engineer who left footprints everywhere

The tower was inaugurated in 1889 for the Exposition Universelle in Paris, marking a century since the French Revolution. Its author was the French engineer Gustave Eiffel. He was not merely “the man who built the Eiffel Tower”, as people often assume — he was already known for a series of daring metal works around the world.

For Vietnamese travellers there is a particular pleasure in knowing that Eiffel's mark is present in Vietnam itself. His firm took part in a number of infrastructure projects in Indochina, most notably the Tràng Tiền bridge in Huế, built in 1899–1900, whose metal structure was designed and erected by the Eiffel company. The bridge across the Perfume River is not simply a piece of transport engineering; it has become part of the memory of the old imperial capital.

Elsewhere his work runs from Europe to the Americas. He stood behind the steel armature inside the Statue of Liberty (1886), and built railway bridges, stations and metal structures in France, Portugal, Spain, Hungary and many other countries.

One detail worth keeping: late in life, Eiffel turned to science. He made the tower itself into an enormous laboratory for meteorology, physics and radio transmission. That is why it was never dismantled after the 1889 Exposition, as had originally been planned.

From detested structure to permanent emblem

It is hard now to imagine Paris without it. When it first appeared, however, it caused fierce argument. A group of French artists and writers, Guy de Maupassant among them, protested and called it a colossal iron frame disfiguring the city.

Within a few years it had become a source of national pride. Today it is the most photographed structure on earth.

People can turn metal into poetry, and a piece of engineering can become the soul of a city.

How to do it properly

The best visit is not going up, taking one photograph and leaving.

Begin at the Trocadéro early in the morning — one of the finest positions for the whole tower. While the city is still quiet and the light lies gently on the steel curves, you can see how elegant the thing really is.

Then walk down into the Champ-de-Mars, where Parisians picnic, read and idle at the foot of it. A very Parisian afternoon: a small bottle of champagne, a few French pastries, and the grass as the lamps come on.

Every evening, in the first minutes of each hour after dark, the tower sparkles for about five minutes with thousands of lights. However many times you have seen it, you stop and watch.

Eating around the tower

Le Jules Verne — the one-Michelin-star restaurant on the tower itself, known for fine French cooking and a remarkable view over Paris. For particular occasions.

Madame Brasserie — lighter, still a meal inside the tower, in a contemporary room.

Café de l'Homme — a favourite for its head-on view of the tower. Excellent for a cocktail or an afternoon coffee.

Nearby, the Rue Cler is a very good food street: boulangerie, fromagerie, small cafés and fine grocers.

A full afternoon

A tip for travellers who already know Paris: join the tower to a walk along the Seine, over the Pont Alexandre III, past the Invalides, and finish with a glass of champagne. That is how you feel the city not as a tourist but as someone who loves it.