An icon of Paris and an icon of France, the Eiffel Tower, or “Iron Lady” as it is affectionately known, rises 324 meters above the city of light. A vertiginous emblem of the Industrial Revolution right in the heart of Paris and cornerstone of the Universal Exhibition of 1889, the Eiffel Tower just keeps getting younger, scarcely betraying its true age. Bathed in a golden light at nightfall (since 1985), the tower sparkles for five minutes at the start of every hour. Once again, this feature was intended to be a temporary one to mark the transition to the year 2000 but it remains in place to this day. With its gracious and vertiginous fragile silhouette, the Eiffel Tower was only ever intended as an ephemeral landmark when it was built by Gustave Eiffel, in 1889.

A tourist favorite… for the past 120 years

Its ultimate destiny has turned out to be quite different: it was never dismantled, saved by its immense public success at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900, as well as Eiffel's scientific experiments. Initially dedicated solely to radio transmission (the first radio transmissions in 1898 and first public radio broadcast in 1925) followed by telecommunications (up to and including digital terrestrial television), the tower really took off as a tourist attraction during the 1950s, becoming the most visited attraction in France behind the gardens of the Château de Versailles. Since then, visitor numbers have been rising steadily. Today, of the 7 million people that visit the monument annually, 75% come from abroad and consider the Eiffel Tower to be an absolute must on their itinerary. It has to be said the “Iron Lady” has pride of place in any report on Paris. It has provided an inspiring backdrop to numerous films, starting with Abel Gance's La Fin du Monde (The End of the World), in 1930. Disproportionate, it has everything required to embody Paris, France and the Parisian imagination.

An out-of-the ordinary monument, boasting restaurants and attractions

Gustave Eiffel's construction is an imposing feature. Rising 303 metres into the sky (excluding antennae), it weighs in excess of 10,000 tonnes and is made up of 18,000 individual metal sections assembled using 2,500,000 rivets. It has been repainted around twenty times and was even lightened by 1,340 tonnes during the major make-over carried out in 1985. To reach the first two levels, people must take the lifts or use the steps – 704 steps to the second level. The ascent offers an atypical tour of the heart of the Tower's metal structure, with unique views over the capital.

From the second level, visitors can admire the whole of Paris and its symbolic monuments, including Notre-Dame, the Louvre and its Pyramid, the Arc de Triomphe and even, in the distance, the Château de Versailles. Each level offers visitors a broad range of visual, cultural and taste experiences: “l'Epopée tour Eiffel” or Tales of the Eiffel Tower, and Cineiffel on the first level offering original images of the tower, the Jules Verne restaurant on the second level and the vertiginous champagne bar at the top … The tower is open until 11 p.m. allowing visitors to admire the City of Light in all its glory, a festival of bright and colourful lights against the backdrop of a starry night.

120 years of spectacular kick-offs and final flourishes

With the Champ-de-Mars, the magnificent Parisian park laid out at its feet, and, on the other side of the river Seine, the esplanade du Trocadéro offering a glorious view of the Tower, the Iron Lady has long since been a theatre of spectacular lighting effects and outstanding events: Bastille Day fireworks on July the 14^th, firework display for the year 2000, Blue Tower to coincide with the French Presidency of the EU and a multi-coloured display to mark its 120^th anniversary, various facilities (ice rink, garden, etc.). From the outset, it has inspired artists, painters (Bonnard, Vuillard, Dufy, Chagall, etc.), singers and writers. The cubist painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) dedicated many of his works to the tower. During the Belle Epoque, the cabaret artist Mistinguett expressed her amazement at its continued existence. In the 1970s, the singer Jacques Dutronc was concerned it might have cold feet. Rather than just a brief moment in time, the Tower has become the “soul” of the City of Light, dominating the Seine and the Paris skyline. “A useless and irreplaceable building, a familiar world and heroic symbol, the witness to a century and a permanently new monument, an inimitable and endlessly reproduced object…”, said Roland Barthes (La tour Eiffel, published by Delpirre in 1964).