| It's hard to believe that the Eiffel Tower, the quintessential symbol both of Paris and the brilliance of industrial engineering, was designed to be a temporary structure for a fair. Late-nineteenth-century Europe had a taste for giant-scale, colonialist–capitalist extravaganzas, but Paris's 1889 Exposition Universelle was particularly ambitious: when completed, the tower, at 300m, was the tallest building in the world. Reactions were violent. Outraged critics protested against this "grimy factory chimney". "Is Paris", they asked, "going to be associated with the grotesque, mercantile imaginings of a constructor of machines?" Eiffel himself thought it was beautiful. "The first principle of architectural aesthetics," he said, "prescribes that the basic lines of a structure must correspond precisely to its specified use . . . To a certain extent the tower was formed by the wind itself." Curiously, this most celebrated of landmarks was only saved from demolition by the sudden need for "wireless telegraphy" aerials in the first decade of the twentieth century. The tower's role in telecommunications – its only function apart from tourism – has only become more important, and the original crown is now masked by an efflorescence of antennae. Over the last century, the structure has needed few adjustments, but it has seen some surprising cosmetic changes: the original deep red paint-scheme has been covered up with a sober, dusty-chocolate brown since the late 1960s – at least the city is spared the canary yellow that covered the tower for most of its first decade. At night, the tower is illuminated from within, its sweeping searchlight giving it the appearance of a huge urban lighthouse. Going up (daily: mid-June to Aug 9am–midnight; Sept to mid-June 9.30am–11pm) costs €9.90 (for the top; access closes at 10.30pm), €6.90 (second level) or €3.70 (first level); you can also climb the stairs as far as the second level for a mere €3 (access to the stairs closes at 6pm from Sept to mid-June). Paris looks surreally microscopic from the top and though the views are arguably better from the second level, especially on hazier days, there's something irresistible about taking the lift all the way. The view is, of course, the main attraction, but you can also peer through a window into Eiffel's airy little show-off study, at the very top, while at the second level is the hyper-gastronomic restaurant, Jules Verne.
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