Oh yes! This is true! I was in Paris in April of 2004 and the Parisiens are still trying to get ride of the hideous thing. Have you ever noticed all of the planes that circle it? They are trying to find a time when no one is there so that they can bomb it to kingdom come.
For two or three years now, there have been uniformed and armed French soldiers at the base trying to fight through the crowds of tourists to rig it with explosives, but it has been too crowded to even put up the “Boom Goes the Dynamite” signs.
Twice a year – in July and December – all of Paris gathers to try to push the Tower over, but they are pushing from all directions at the same time and it has been a four-way tie each time. Curses.
Word has it that they keep adding lights to make it easier to see as a target. The “light spasm” that happens for ten minutes once an hour at night is said to be a “triple chien dare” – whatever that means.
Meanwhile, the totally tasteless continue to flock to see this relic from La Belle Epoque. The last estimate was 300,000,000 – or maybe it was only 200 hundred million since it opened. Who can blame the Parisiens? They’re very private, you know.
You are also right that it doesn’t go with the rest of the buildings which are all Eighteenth Century. I abhor inconsistency.
Yes, as the Parisiens say, it’s very out of place in Paris.
