“It cannot be envisaged to plan for a new application of a coat of paint that will do nothing but increase the risk of a total loss of adhesion in the system.”īernard Giovannoni, the head of Expiris and the 2014 report’s author, told Marianne: “I’ve worked on the tower for several years now. “Even if the general state of the anti-corrosion protection seems good to the eye, this can be misleading,” it said. Its Covid-enforced closure in 2020 led to a loss of €52m in income.Ī report in 2010 said: “Sete must take another look at the Eiffel Tower and come up with a completely new maintenance policy centred on the testing of the ageing metal structure.”Ī second report in 2014 by Expiris, an expert paint company, found the tower had cracks and rusting and only 10% of the newer paint on the tower was adhering to the structure. The tower receives about 6 million visitors in a typical year, making it the fourth most visited cultural site in France after Disneyland, the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles. The company that oversees the tower, Sete, which is 99%-owned by the city hall, is reluctant to close it for a long period because of the tourist revenue that would be lost. They say the tower needs to be completely stripped back to the metal, repaired and repainted, and that painting over old paint is making the corrosion worse. However, delays to the work caused by Covid and the presence of worrying levels of lead in the old paint means only 5% will be treated.Įxperts told Marianne that the work was only a cosmetic facelift and predicted the final result would be “lamentable”. A third of the tower was supposed to be stripped and then have two new coats applied. The tower is undergoing a €60m repaint in preparation for the 2024 Olympics, the 20th time the monument has been repainted. “The most important thing is to prevent the start of rust.” “Paint is the essential ingredient for protecting a metallic structure and the care with which this is done is the only guarantee of its longevity,” he wrote at the time. Before it opened it was given four coats of red lead paint, now banned but then considered the best anti-corrosive agent.Įiffel, the civil engineer whose company designed and built the monument, said identifying and stopping the spread of rust was the biggest challenge to the construction’s longevity and suggested it would need painting every seven years. It has an estimated 2.5m rivets and was built using puddle iron, invented in Britain during the Industrial Revolution through a process that produced high-grade and purer wrought iron by removing carbon from pig iron in the melting process. The 324-metre-tall, 7,300-tonne iron tower was built for the 1889 world’s fair.
If your ticket offers access to the summit, your tour guide will escort you up the elevator on the second floor.Once you reach the second floor, witness Paris’ glory and enjoy the spell-binding views, dine at the famed Jules Verne restaurant, or shop for souvenirs. Your guide will accompany you all the way up while introducing you to interesting facts about the tower’s history, construction, and other details. Depending on the chosen ticket, your Eiffel Tower tour will begin from the ground Esplanade and then move to the second floor.
Enjoy a hassle-free visit while taking in all the beautiful sights and the rich culture and history that your experienced guide will explain to you. You can get quick access with priority access to the Tower and other landmarks (in case you have purchased combo tickets).Here, you will meet your expert, multi-lingual tour guide, who will escort you past the long queues to the elevators. Please check your ticket for details that are specific to the tickets that you have purchased.
Since most guided tours offer skip-the-line access, your typical Eiffel Tower tour starts at the entrance of the attraction.What to Expect on an Eiffel Tower Guided Tour?
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