With the just completed French Open tennis tournament quickly fading in our memories (assuming you saw any of it), the indelible image of the iconic Eiffel Tower may yet remain.
This year -- 2021 -- marks the 132nd birthday of the 1,063-foot-tall structure in central Paris.
Did you know the tower was originally opened to the public as the main attraction of the 1889 World’s Fair?
It wasn’t immediately embraced by the local arts community as it was being erected. In a statement issued at the time by a group of artists, sculptors and architects, the structure was described as “a ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack.”
But World Fair attendees saw it differently, with nearly 2 million visiting the tower during the fair, and by 1918 it had become a symbol of Paris and France.
The tower now averages around 7 million visitors each year, with more than 250 million having visited as of 2015. One of those visitors was 20th century madman Adolf Hitler, who visited in June 1940 after France surrendered to Germany in WWII.
Today, the tower offers visitors three levels of sightseeing, shopping and no-doubt-fancy-as-heck restaurants. I wonder what a bowl of snails would cost with that kind of view?
Be that as it may, tourists keep flocking to the tower in mind-numbing numbers. With a yearly visitation average of 7 million, more than 19,000 would be lining up to ascend the tower every day rain or shine (assuming it’s open all 365 days).
That means some pretty long lines -- which many visitors have criticized afterward online as “ridiculous” -- with wait times of at least two hours.
On the other hand, the cost to get in that line is fairly reasonable by European attraction standards. While ticket prices vary widely depending on how high up the tower you wish to go, they are currently charging 19 Euros for adults (about $23 U.S. dollars) and about $11 for those 12-24 to go all the way to the top.
Of course, enterprising tourist companies are offering “skip-the-line” tower entrees for between $67 and $93 per person -- complete with private tour guide.
I’m trying to imagine how I would feel standing in a long line to go up into the tower as a bunch of skip-the-liners barge in front of me.
There had better be plenty of gendarmes nearby to keep a riot from breaking out.
Sale batards!!!
If I recall correctly the express line entrance started on the other side of the tower base- and I think we may have paid less than that, but I'm not sure. Glad we did it, though.