A new thrilling glass floor at the first level of the Iron Lady

Since yesterday (Monday October 6th), the Eiffel Tower – Paris’ most visited tourist site – unveiled its renovated First Floor allowing visitors to look down through a solid glass floor.

To increase the frisson of walking on air still further, the glass safety barriers have been inclined outwards. Previously the first floor was the least visited part of the tower and this new floor should attract more people.

A Huge Work on the Eiffel Tower

The €30-million ($37.5-million) refit - which took two years - includes shops, restaurants and a museum.

The city of Paris, charged architects Moatti-Riviere with creating a space that would show off Gustave Eiffel's impressive ironwork and make it fully accessible for disabled visitors.

The new buildings will also produce part of their own energy using windmills and solar panels, and the toilets will be run partly on rainwater.

The Eiffel Tower : most visited site in Paris

The "Iron Lady" attracts around seven million visitors a year, of which 85% are foreign travelers. If we look at nationalities, most visitors come from France (12,5%) followed by Americans (8,5%), Britons (7%), Italians (6,7%) and Germans (6%).

The Painting of the Eiffel Tower - a never ending job

The renovation of the first floor may be now complete but work on the whole tower built for the World's Fair of 1889 never ends. The structure has to be repainted every seven years, a job that requires 60 tons of paint. 

 

If you too would like to visit Paris, we can craft itineraries for you in Paris and other French regions. 

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A fantastic well-planned self-drive tour We had the most amazing time on our 6 week self-drive tour designed by Laura, travelling through Brittany, Loire, Dordogne, Medoc, Basque France, Languedoc, Provence, the Alps, Alsace and Champagne. This was a big trip for us and it was everything I’d hoped and dreamed and even more besides. All our …
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My husband and I just returned from two magnificent weeks in France that included four nights in Paris, four nights in the Loire Valley, two nights near Mont Saint Michel, three nights in Bayeux, near the WWII Landing Beaches and one night at a CDG airport hôtel. We stayed in charming B&Bs with equally charming hosts who recommended great places to …