Paris - The Eiffel Tower - 7me

Plate LXV - The Eiffel Tower…

It was originally planned for the Barcelona Exposition of 1888. They did not like it! As Manuel in the British television series Fawlty Towers was ready to admit - in Barcelona they know nothing.

Easy to describe, it is an iron lattice observation and radio-broadcasting tower. 
A several thousand ton one. 
And at 324 metres to the tip of its topmost antenna, it is still the tallest structure in Paris. For a while it was also the tallest in the world, and whilst others may have overtaken it (starting with New York’s Chrysler Building in 1930), it remains the most instantly recognizable monument on the planet.

It is a marvel of engineering, designed to withstand specific height variable wind resistances. The 18,000 ‘puddled iron’ pieces of the structure weigh 7,500 tonnes, and are assembled with some two and a half million rivets. It is repainted (in three different colours) as an anti corrosive measure every seven years, with some 60 tonnes of paint. Specially designed and complex lifts were commissioned to cope with the curvature and slant of the construction, and it has welcomed well over 200 million paying visitors.

It is the Eiffel Tower.

It is France.

It is Paris.

And it is still there.

That is perhaps its greatest triumph, for Gustave Eiffel’s amazing tower, completed for the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, and to commemorate the centenary year of the French Revolution, was only intended to stand for twenty years. Surprisingly, the 1909 decision to save the Eiffel tower was not a landslide victory for the conservationists. Those opposed to its construction (and retention) included writers Alexander Dumas, and Guy de Maupassant, architect Charles Garnier, and composer Charles Gounod. Perhaps they should have gone with Manuel to Barcelona. 

Seen here in the background beneath the arch is the Palace of Chaillot, housing the Museum of Man (former home of the controversial displayed remains of Sarah Baartman - the Hottentot Venus, now returned to her home and a dignified resting place in South Africa), the Museum of the Navy and the Museum of French Monumments. The Palace was built for the Paris Exhibition of 1937 on the site of the Trocadéro.
And incidentally, due to copyright registration of the lighting design it is officially illegal to publish night time images of the tower without obtaining permission. So, here it is in all its magnificence - by day.

Paris - Ste. Chapelle - 1er

Plate XXV - Ste. Chapelle

Hard to photograph, and do any justice, using this camera I may have to resort to the proverbial thousand words on Sainte Chapelle, the holy chapel found within the walls of the Palace of Justice. Built by Louis IX between 1243 and 1248 as a reliquary to house Christ’s crown of thorns it remains one of Frances greatest monuments. The architect is unrecorded though often assumed to be Pierre de Montreuil. Sainte Chapelle represents the pinnacle of the Gothic Rayonant style of architecture where not only does the tracery of the glass work contribute to design complexity, but the interplay between glass and stone is a notable feature. The work in Sainte Chapelle was to inspire many later church architects - some influence can be noted on the transept windows of Notre Dame. Severe damage was inflicted on the chapel during the French Revolution, and much of what is seen today is the result of superb and meticulous restoration carried out in 1855, adhering strictly to surviving original documentation.

The 15 windows of the upper chapel of Sainte Chapelle rank amongst the most impressive in the world. This chamber, once reserved for Royal use, is built of slender trellised columns filled by almost continuous curtains, some 15 metres in height, of the most exquisite stained glass, comparable only to the work I later saw in Chartres Cathedral. Dating from the early 13th century the windows too were extensively damaged during a number of conflicts in the city, most notably during the Revolution, but even so it is estimated that some two thirds of the glass seen today is original, while the remainder has been sympathetically restored.

I was fortunate on a later visit to France to watch restoration work being done on the windows of Chartres Cathedral. The painstaking attention to detail exercised by the glass artists commissioned to do this work is beyond belief. It is encouraging to know that this level of artisan craftsmanship still exists today. I fear it will not for much longer – I think the youngest of the restoration team was over fifty.

Additional precious relics of Christ’s Passion had been added to the reliquary over the centuries, the remnants of these are now housed in the Treasury of Notre Dame de Paris. There are two places I have found in my life that inspire me to use the adjective ‘celestial’ when describing them - Mont St. Michel is the one … and Sainte Chapelle is the other.

* Included here in the 1st arrondissement due to its proximity to the Conciergerie - some guides show the location as 4^th arrondissement.

Paris - Grande Arche Detail - La Défense

Plate III - Grande Arche de la Fraternite

The three main elements of the Grande Arche are: the arche itself (comprising of two glazed side tower blocks of some 87,000 square metres and a linking belvedere platform creating the span); the Teflon canvas, steel and glass cloud; and the exposed external elevator shaft. Clad in three hectares of white Italian Carrara marble the shape of the arche can be seen from many vantage points throughout Paris. It is arguably the greatest architectural contribution to the city skyline of the twentieth century, and like many of the city’s architectural features it was a controversial addition. Designed by Danish architect Johann Otto Von Spreckelsen in 1983, on an initiative launched by incumbent French president Francois Mitterand in 1981, the arche was inaugurated on 14th July 1989 to coincide with the bicentenary of the French Revolution (and a full century after the Eiffel Tower). The date also coincided with the 15th G7 Summit. 

The arche, at a height of 110 metres (about 300 feet) and forming an almost perfect cube at 108 metres wide, could enclose Notre Dame cathedral. The mass of the arche is calculated at about 300,000 tons – approximately six times the mass of the Eiffel Tower - (the 'roof' contributing some 30,000 of these), and it rests almost centred (it is inexplicably turned at 6.33 degrees) on the furthest point of the historical axis of Paris, on twelve pillars. I choose to believe this slight rotation gives an impression of its depth from any point along the axis (others will tell you it was a more pragmatic decision, taken to accommodate the deep foundations of twelve massive concrete piles intruding into the subterranean train and metro stations below).

The interior space of the Grande Arche is made interesting by the inclusion of “the cloud”. This may be adjusted by height and shape to suit events taking place within the space of the arche. Dramatic lighting effects at night make the cloud visible from distances kilometres away, down the spine of the historical axis, making the name of the shape entirely appropriate, for it’s changing form truly is reminiscent of a cloud.

The arche was constructed in an amazingly short three years. I was in complete awe. It is magnificent – a word I found myself overusing then as I probably shall again and again now. Forgive me.