Do you like the Eiffel Tower ?

Do you like the Eiffel Tower ?

  • Absolutely love it !

    Votes: 15 50.0%

  • Quite nice, definitely one of the best sights in Paris

    Votes: 7 23.3%

  • Not bad, but nothing to fuss over

    Votes: 5 16.7%

  • Can't stand it

    Votes: 3 10.0%
  • Total voters
    30
Maciamo

Maciamo

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Paris is the most visited city in the world. It's most famous symbol is the Eiffel Tower. Personally, I am particularily fond of it. It's just a kind of giant TV antenna a bit nicer and older than average. I would never put it on my top 20 list of sights in Paris. In fact, I wonder if any reasonably nice house in Paris should not be considered more beautiful than the Eiffel Tower. Its only merits are its height and its originality (iron in a city of stone).

I have just seen a documentary about the Plaza Athénée Hotel, Paris' most prestigious hotel. They were creating a huge Royal Suite at a cost of 1.5 million euro. They said that one of the greatest asset of the suite was the view on the Eiffel Tower !! I couldn't believe my ears. The hotel is splendid, a true palace. In fact that very suite was a small palace in itself. What the heck would customers staying there care about such a tacky and over-photographed attraction as the Eiffel Tower ? I can't understand.

Likewise, I wonder why the Atomium (or Manneken Pis, for that matter) is frequently ranked as one of the top sights in Brussels, when it clearly does not make my top 10. Yet it is more original than the Eiffel Tower. Were the two of them in the same city, I would rank the Atomium just before the Eiffel Tower, yet towards the bottom of the famous sights.

Your opinion ?
 
The Eiffel Tower is... okay. I don't dislike it at all. Although I have never been up it, I must say (I imagine the view from the top is amazing! But the view from Sacre Coeur is excellent too :cool:). I agree that it is perhaps not as 'special' as people are led to believe, in terms of being a spectacular sight.
 
If it is only to see the view from the top, it means that the tower itself is not the sight, but it's just a place from where to see more beautiful places. The Montparnasse Tower is just like that as well (but definitely uglier).
 
The Eiffel Tower looks impressive when you fly over Paris.
The lift in the Tower is also quite special.
The food in the restaurant is good, sitting and eating there looking over Paris is really something.
The view from the Eiffel Tower over Paris is magnificent

And I love Paris.
 
I have been to Paris twice, went up the tower once the first time. I remember the que's, the lads selling the toy birds that flap about - I remembered seeing them in a movie before, it was very crowded and hot. On the way down the elevator would not go flush with the floor about a foot to high and so the operator could not close the door. She gave a big smile and told us all to jump in the air together and as we landed it bumped the elevator down and in to position. We all laughed - when I think of it now!

I have no desire to go up again - not for mysake anyway but maybe the kids when they are older, its a very small and unimportant part of Paris a novelty but mind you a great landmark if your like me and forever getting lost in those charming but utterly confusing streets.
 
Maciamo said:
I would never put it on my top 20 list of sights in Paris. Likewise, I wonder why the Atomium (or Manneken Pis, for that matter) is frequently ranked as one of the top sights in Brussels, when it clearly does not make my top 10. Yet it is more original than the Eiffel Tower. Were the two of them in the same city, I would rank the Atomium just before the Eiffel Tower, yet towards the bottom of the famous sights.
Your opinion ?
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hmmm ... excluding the Eiffel Tower from the top 20 may be a bit harsh in my opinion, but I certainly also will not rate it as the ultimate must-see in Paris. There are a number of other attractions which I think would be more enjoyable, especially some of the museums. The fuss about Manneken Pis really baffles me (I see nothing particularly noteworthy about it), though I wouldn't mind visiting the Atomium!
 
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A great monument, no question.
 
Miss Marple's nephew said:
Not very much. The story of how it was built is much more interesting than the tower itself.
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I love the story too. Guy was a genius on many fronts no doubt.
By itself the structure is amazing, and was a masterpiece of technology when it was built.

One other hand I always felt that the structure doesn't fit Paris architecture and stands out too much.
 
I think it a pretty original monument. :good_job:

The London Eye on the other hand looks horrendus like some kind of depressing ferris wheel. I did hear that it was supposedly the most visited tourist attraction in the world whether that is true or no I don't know, but im sure it a fair old money spinner. Why anyone would want a birds eye view of London I have no idea. Maybe they would double their turnover if they let people jump off the top. :laughing:
 
edao said:
I think it a pretty original monument. :good_job:

The London Eye on the other hand looks horrendus like some kind of depressing ferris wheel. I did hear that it was supposedly the most visited tourist attraction in the world whether that is true or no I don't know, but im sure it a fair old money spinner. Why anyone would want a birds eye view of London I have no idea. Maybe they would double their turnover if they let people jump off the top. :laughing:
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I have lived in London and been countless times to Paris and never bothered to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower or ride the London Eye. :wary2: Yet, I am the kind of person who needs to see everything when visiting a city. They just don't rank in my top 50 for either city. The view is the only interest, but I got other views from other spots.
 
it looks like lots of steel... Nothing special. It's high, and it's a some kind of symbol of france and paris, but it's like pfff.. There are so many beaufitul places in Paris, i don't understand why this tower is so famous?
 
When I went to Paris six years ago, we ate at the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were surrounded by tourists, only the staff were French! The experience was very nice. However, when we left, there was an instantanious "strike" by all the public and taxi services as a protest, so we had to "walk", back to our hotel (not near by), and I took my highheeled shoes of and walked back and enjoyed the scenery, and ended up crossing the bridge where Princess Diana had her fatal accident. That was a "serindipity event" for sure.

As an American, I am "partial to Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, because he designed the iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework for the Statue of Liberty.

Melusine
 
I prefer Blackpool Tower.
 
well,i ve never been to france,so i cannot express my opinion about that.i ve heared also that french people are much more sovinists than people from other countries.
 
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