Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live with a world famous monument at the end of your street?

It would probably look like this .

 

or even this …

 

Of course you, hoped (against hope),that it might look like this.

 

If you have the last view from you window, your rent is somewhat higher than the previous views.

Now we might all want the Hanging Gardens of babylon, or even the Eiffel Tower as the view from our living room window, but, if you can’t afford it …

You might all want to live within spitting distance of the Eiffel tower. However if you do live with salivating proximity, you might well be living in this – though when you see the photos that follow, you will say that it is better to live in an ugly building with a decent view rather than live in a decent building with an awful view – that way, you can’t see where you actually live. So welcome to the “backstage” of the Eiffel Tower.

 

 

 

 

So, a ew words for my dear old Eiffel Tower. Well Eiffel in love with you when I first mounted you in 1979. there were far less tourists then, and you could just “nip up” without too much queuing and you didn’t have to reserve your place in the line via Internet. I first went up the tower with my rather snotty and snobby pen friend “Olivier”. We took the stairs to the first floor, had a plate of chips and then came down again. I have never been up since, because the best way to see the tower is not from the tower, and when you get on the tower there is bugger all to see, and you get a far better view of Paris from other monuments.

Far more interesting at the tower is the mass of humanity waiting to go up. All colors, confessions, sizes, races … It is one of the world’s greatest “Melting pots” and I enjoy hanging around the foot of the tower just to see all the tourists – including the group of very disappointed Chinese tourists who turned up at the tower when it was closed because the personnel were on strike – this is the risk you run when you come to France.

Finally, what is the cheapest and most popular tourist souvenir in France?

A plastic reproduction of the Eiffel tower sold (according to size) anywhere between 1 Euro to 20 Euros – all made in China and sold by Roma or African hawkers.

I love this place, because all the world is here.