“Two Eiffel Towers for the price of one”: a replica of the famous Parisian building, ten times smaller than its model, was installed Saturday morning on the Champ-de-Mars, without however being unanimous with the public and local residents.
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“Seven years ago the idea came to me, one night like this, to build the Eiffel Tower on a scale of 1/10. (…) The goal is to make a moment of lightness, carelessness. In the current situation, I believe that we need it a lot and there is no other goal than to create happiness and to create a bond”, explained to AFP the creator of Eiffel, Philippe Maindron.
33 meters high and weighing 32 tonnes, this replica was assembled in Vendée. His arrival on Saturday near his model was the subject of a tweet from the City of Paris, consisting of a message saying “don’t worry, you can see clearly” and a photo of the two towers, in this April 1, a day that traditionally gives rise to jokes.
She must stay there until April 10, according to the newspaper Le Parisien.
On the spot, Dominique Dimitroff, a retired Parisian, finds the installation “very, very nice”, with “two Eiffel towers for the price of one”, when Frédéric Lepetit, a 35-year-old tourist, underlines that it is ” the exact copy of its big sister”.
Dissonant voices were also heard on social networks.
The collective “Friends of the Champ-de-Mars” thus criticized this initiative, saying on Twitter that “most city dwellers simply want to walk in (beautiful) gardens”.
The Eiffel Tower, completed just 134 years ago, was also the subject of a real hoax on the same social network on Saturday: its official account announces that “the highest slide in the world will be installed on my summit at from July 1!”, video editing in support. But this time, as a sign with fish in the short film suggests, the joke is obvious.
🇬🇧 You’re not ready for my new summer attraction! The highest slide in the world will be installed on my summit from July 1st!
🌐You’re not ready for this! The tallest slide in the world will be installed on my summit from July 1st!
📽️@origiful pic.twitter.com/MrwlmYvtic
— La tour Eiffel (@LaTourEiffel) April 1, 2023