The boyfriend of my best friend has this attitude about the tower: ‘What’s so special about it? It’s just a very very high pile of iron!!’ And about the tower at night: ‘What’s so special about it? It’s just a very very high pile of iron with lights!!’
Huh, well, we have to admit that it’s one way of seeing it. Just for your information, he still goes there anyway, everytime he visits Paris! 
Okay, actually, he’s not the first person having this opinion. In fact, lots of Parisian people share the same opinion too, especially those who lived in Paris during its construction. Even though it’s so touristic, lots of tourists think the same! They think that it doesn’t have any function, that it’s too big, that it takes lots of place for nothing,…
So, hereby, I will categorize people in two categories:
- People who think that it’s just a high pile of iron and don’t think it’s special and don’t see why people admire it… and
- People who think it’s special and admire it and want to come back to Paris just to see it..
Under which category will I fall???
Well, in one side, it’s true that the Eiffel Tower is big, place taking, AND not functional. Okay, you can go up to the peak and see Paris from above, but there are several buildings and places in Paris you can do it from (eg: Montparnasse Tower, Sacré Coeur)… In fact, Eiffel Tower was initially built for the International Exhibition of Paris in 1889. So, true. Eiffel Tower is just a very big decoration.
BUUUUT, in the other side….
What’s wrong with having a decoration? We do buy or even create decorations in our house so when people come to visit, they can appreciate them, right? Besides, Eiffel is NOT an ugly decoration at all…
Okay, first time I saw the tower, the sky was blue without any clouds. I saw it from across, from Trocadero. And my very first thought was: masculine! It was standing there, so tall and so straight, with the bluest sky as its background. It gave me this impression that it’s trying to say: ‘Look at me, I’m reaching the sky and I CAN do that. Can you?’ Or: ‘I’m the most beautiful and the tallest of them all, I’m the King of all towers!’ That arrogance, that proudness, brings the Tower a kind of ‘virility’, and everything adds up to the masculinity. As an image, have you ever seen a guy that in one look, you have this impression that he’s very very masculine? Well, the Tower is like that, just a hundred times more impact-giving
My second thought was: how so elegant! Even though the Tower looks viril and masculine, it also has this elegance, like an experienced lady in her ball dress. It looks like if it could move, it would move like a super model, or like a female cat trying to attire her male, or like a ballet dancer doing pirouette or something (not a dancer, sorry ). But it can’t. So it stays there, so elegant, looks like it’s posing to be painted. Besides, it has this kind of suppleness that just has to leave you in awe.
And how would ‘a very very high pile of iron’ can give you these impressions if it were just an ordinary very very high pile of iron? Exactly, the Tower is extraordinary, it’s a state of art. It’s an architectural achievement. True, it’s a pile of iron. True, it just has a decorative functional. But only a true artist with a big mission can pile irons into what oohs and what aahs people from all over the world, and into what drops your jaw…
So, have you been to Eiffel Tower? Under which category can we categorize you? 
PS: Here’s a picture of my first visit to the Eiffel Tower. On my side is Fabrice, my guide while I was in Paris. Read more in my previous post…
