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These colorful rings could become a permanent part of the Eiffel Tower.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
The Olympics ended in mid-August and the Paralympic Games will end in a few days, but that doesn’t mean Paris is ready for the excitement to end. The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has announced that the famous Olympic rings will remain on the Eiffel Tower.
“I want to keep this festive atmosphere alive!” Hidalgo says Ouest-France‘s Cyril Petit and Stéphane Vernay, according to a translation of the New York Times‘Aurelien Breeden. “As mayor of Paris, the decision is mine.”
Not everyone agrees with the mayor’s decision. Al, one Change.org petition The demand that the rings be removed once the Paralympic Games end has attracted more than 38,000 signatures. The offspring of engineer Gustave Eiffel, who designed the tower, have also opposed this measure.
“We do not believe it is appropriate for the Eiffel Tower… to be permanently associated with an external organization, regardless of its prestige,” the family said in a statement. statementper translation of CNN‘s Niamh Kennedy, Christian Edwards and Saskya Vandoorne. They add that the tower is “not intended as an advertising platform.”
The city installed the rings – which are 30 meters wide and 13 meters high – in July before the Olympics. The original intention was to demolish them in September.
To complicate matters further, keeping the colorful rings on the tower actually takes more work than removing them. The existing fixture is too heavy to remain on the monument for long periods of time and will need to be replaced with a lighter version.
“We still have so many unresolved questions because the original rings were heavy and built for temporary times. That’s why we take them down and create new ones to preserve them for a long time,” said Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor of Paris. CNN.
The Eiffel Tower was built for the World’s Fair of 1889 in Paris, and city leaders originally planned to dismantle it after twenty years. At the time, artists heavily criticized the structure and protested “the construction of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower in the heart of our capital,” according to the tower’s statement. website. Writer Guy de Maupassant called it a “gigantic, ungainly skeleton” and a “ridiculous, skinny factory chimney.”
Today, the tower is embraced as the city’s most recognizable landmark. It became one in 1991 UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As with any major change to a beloved landmark, the choice leaves many divided. For some, the addition is welcome. “The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful; the rings add color,” says a woman named Solène France Blueper BBC newsYaroslav Lukiv. “It’s really nice to see it like this.”
For others, however, it is a plague. “It is a historical monument. Why contaminate with rings?” a resident named Manon tells the French broadcaster. “It was good for the Olympics, but now it’s over. We can move on. Maybe we should remove them and return the Eiffel Tower to its original state.”
Rachida Dati, France’s culture minister, urged officials to proceed with caution. In a message at X (formerly Twitter), she argued that the government should ensure that the plan complies with heritage regulations.
