Woody in Paris. Eiffel Tower

Bonjour Steemers,

Over the weekend I visited Paris. I was their for 24 hours and visited a handful of the 'main attraction' sites located within Paris. I must say, Paris took a while to grow on me, however on the Sunday(next day) I fell so in love with the Architecture..i have a thing for this.

Why was I initially disappointed? to be honest I was expecting pure chic, a fantasy I suppose and a stylish super clean city. On arrival at the Garde du Norde station, taking a left, I was greeted with an awful area. People shoving packs of cigarette in my face shouting 'Marlborough'. This was frustrating, especially when you are trying to get to destination to drop bag and explore the city. The stench was also unbearable --not far off a public urinal stench.

A metro ride later I arrived in a wonderful part of Paris and was greeted with sites of the infamous Eiffel Tower.

I must say...what an impressive structure! I thought it would be a lot of brick work, was not expecting it to be metal. It was already dark by the time I had arrived, so it had it's light on, a wonderful golden honey hue. I normally like to see buildings/arts etc first before doing my research on it, in order to to draw my own conclusions and give my eyes the opportunity to view without an opinion/facts in the background.

So here is what I have found out on the Eiffel.
The Eiffel tower is a product of Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers whom worked at Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel; to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution.

Looking at the base and the structure of the Eiffel, I can clearly see the influence of an engineer at hand. Especially with the use of material used. In my opinion I find that traditional architects stick to the standard brick and mortar material and include obvious stories/tales with their monuments. This is very straight forward but intense with the metal pylon work. A lot of geometric patterns involved. Even for the 20th century this piece seems very ahead of it's time. You have to admire the creative genius behind the Tower...my own opinion resonates with Eiffel's vision (read below). This just shows how powerful he has expressed this through-even though the design concept was not derived from him.

Initially Eiffel had rejected the idea for the tower. However a new version was drawn up which gained Eiffel's support: he bought the rights to the patent on the design. On the 30 March 1885 (wow Like incredibly so long ago!!) Eiffel put forward a presentations to the Société des Ingénieurs Civils; he had included within his talk by saying the tower would represent:

          ''Not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude''

As you can imagine, with any proposal you shall be met with criticism. This tower was called 'monstrous' and you can see why. It is not very chic and stylish with soft lines like a lot of the architecture found in France. In fact it is the utter opposite, hard harsh materials used, with straight focused edgy lines.

For me, the tower represents the relationship between Architects and Engineers. Look at the incredible result when the two are combined. What are your thoughts on the Eiffel Tower? Would love to hear.

Peace and Love all,

Woody.