#Paris

What do you see # 69 -February 15 2021

( For the visually challenged reader, this image shows a view of the Eiffel Tower at night when it is illuminated in golden light. In the foreground you can see the Seine river reflecting the lights)

We had been looking forward to our visit to Paris, the City of Light, and our expectations were high. Especially the Eiffel Tower, always so magical in photographs!

In the daylight hours, however, it didn’t seem very magical. Interesting enough, I suppose, the way the size of it dominates the city. Painted a nondescript brown, reducing the magnificent structure to nothing more than a pile of boring metal work during the day.

We loved the Louvre and the beautiful gardens of the Bois de Boulogne. Notre Dame Cathedral was impressive, which almost made up for the earlier disappointment.

That first evening though, we discovered a completely transformed City of Light, so magical, and glamourous enough for anyone. Ruled over by a transformed and gleaming Tower, now gloriously impressive.

I had to know what made such a difference, and this is what I discovered…

“Constructed using puddle iron, the Tower is protected from oxidation by several coats of paint to ensure that it lives forever.

The Tower has been re-painted 18 times since its initial construction, an average of once every seven years. It has changed colour several times, passing from red-brown to yellow-ochre, then to chestnut brown and finally to the bronze of today, slightly shaded off towards the top to ensure that the colour is perceived as the same all the way up as it stands against the Paris sky.

The beams of light, directed from the bottom towards the top, illuminate the Eiffel Tower from the inside of its structure. Since 1958, by replacing the 1,290 working projectors that illuminated the Tower from the outside, they highlighted the fine metallic construction of the monument and illuminated the areas used by late-night visitors until the closing of the Tower to the public. In addition to the aesthetic aspect, it is equally necessary for the security of the late-night operation of the Tower.”