SHARE
COPY LINK

TOURISM

Eiffel Tower: 13 things you didn’t know about Paris’ Iron Lady

Did you know the Eiffel Tower and Margaret Thatcher share a nickname? Explore some of the lesser known facts about one of France's most famous monuments.

Eiffel Tower: 13 things you didn't know about Paris' Iron Lady
(Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)

France’s Eiffel Tower, also known as la Dame de fer (the Iron Lady) among French people, was originally built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, and over the years it has become one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, bringing millions of visitors ever year.

READ MORE: French Expression of the Day: La Dame de fer

Despite calls for its demolition in the years after the exhibition, it soon became the most iconic feature on the Paris skyline and one of the country’s most cherished monuments.    

Here’s a look at some of the lesser known facts about France’s Iron Lady:

1. Two years, two months and five days – that’s how long it took to build the Eiffel Tower, with construction beginning in 1887.

2. 7,799,401.31 – what it cost in French gold Francs to build the monument. We’re not sure what the equivalent is in euros, but it sounds like a lot for back in the late 1880s.

3. 324 metres – the height of the Eiffel Tower, including the antenna at the top. That works out at 1,063 feet. Without the antenna it is 300 metres tall (984 feet).

4. Seven inches – That’s how much the tower grows in the sun. Yes the Eiffel Tower grows when it gets hot and shrinks in the cold. Although this is fairly hard to see with the naked eye.

5. 10,000 tonnes  – how much the Iron Lady weighs.

6. 20 years – how long the Eiffel Tower was originally designed to last. It was built by Gustave Eiffel to commemorate the French Revolution and show off France’s industrial might. The removal men were meant to pull it down after 20 years, but Eiffel appears to have persuaded them to have a change of heart. The fact that the tower could be used as a wireless telegraph transmitter made it fairly useful and saved it from the wrecking ball.

7. 103,000 kilometres – That’s the distance one lift travels each year, according the site livescience.com, which, to put into perspective is two and a half times the circumference of the earth. There are of course steps up to the top – 1,710 of them – but visitors can only walk up to the first floor.

8. 19 –  the number of times the Iron Lady has been repainted over the years. It takes a mammoth 60 tonnes of paint to give it a first coat. It’s clearly not a job for the faint hearted, but it must be done every seven years approximately.

9. 41 years – how long the Eiffel Tower was the world’s tallest building for, before the Chrysler Building in New York came along and stole its mantle.

10. 300 million – That’s the number of people who have paid a visit to the Eiffel Tower over the years, according to the Tower’s official website. Were you one of them?

11. 1944 – The year when the Eiffel Tower could have been pulled down. Hitler ordered the German military governor of France to tear it down but he refused.

12. 13 centimetres – Anyone who has been to the top might be able to guess what this figure is for. It’s the amount the Eiffel Tower sways in the wind. But don’t let that put you off going up.

13. €523,800 – That’s how much someone paid in a November 2016 auction for a section of the tower’s stairs. The price was over ten times the pre-sale estimate. 

BRITS IN FRANCE

Bad food but good culture: What the French really think of the UK

They might not love British cuisine but the UK remains a very popular destination for French people to visit, while thousands of them also want to make the move permanently.

Bad food but good culture: What the French really think of the UK

Almost three million French tourists travel to the UK every year with the country’s vibrant cities, history and culture given as the top reasons for their trip.

And a recent survey has revealed a surprisingly positive view of their neighbour from French people – with one exception.

The French participants in the study were asked to rank 60 different countries based on several different topics – tourism, culture, people, exports, governance, immigration and investment. 

So what did they say about the UK?

Bad food

French survey respondents placed British food at the very bottom of the list – in 60th place out of all 60 countries. 

This is far lower than the UK’s average, which was 18th amongst the other nationalities interviewed.

In an interview with The Guardian about how the French feel about British food, the British comedian, Tatty Macleod, who was raised in France said “English food to [the French] is essentially fish and chips (…) they think of Brits as beer louts with unhealthy diets”.

This has been a longstanding feeling amongst the French – in 2018, another comedian, Al Murray, went across the Channel with the documentary series ‘Why does everyone hate the English?’

In France, he teamed up with radio host Antoine de Caunes, and when launching the programme, they conducted a small survey of several hundred viewers to find out the top 20 things the French ‘hate’ about the English.

There were a couple of food-related comments: “Their inability to cook” came in fourth place, the “lack of variety in their diet” took 11th place and “the fact that they put ketchup on everything” came in 12th place, according to a round-up by Ouest France.

It’s been suggested that many French people have bad memories of food they were given on school trips to the UK, often decades ago, and certainly bad food is a recurring theme in French films and TV shows about trips to the UK.

Worth visiting

Despite not having a taste for British cuisine, the French did have a positive view of UK tourism, placing the country 5th for both “vibrant city life and urban attractions” and for being “rich in historic buildings and monuments” in the IPSOS study.

According to Visit Britain, the UK welcomed 2.8 million tourists from France in 2022.

In the culture category in general, the French ranked the UK in third place out of all 60 countries. 

One aspect of British culture that French people seem to really enjoy is the royal family.

In 2021, 6 million people in France watched the funeral of Prince Phillip, 4 million watched the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and the royal weddings of princes William and Harry attracted 9 and 8 million French viewers respectively.

Charles de Gaulle once remarked: “The French have a taste for princes, but they will always look abroad'”.

READ MORE: Why British royals are so popular in France

And in terms of visiting the UK, IPSOS’ findings are in line with previous data about where French people choose to go on holiday – the UK was the fourth most popular country among French people, as of 2019, according to Le Monde.

A 2021 study by Visit Britain also found that 10 percent of French people would pick the UK as their top global destination.

Moving to the UK

And there are plenty of French people who decide to make their stay a long-term or even permanent one.

The UK ranked in third place as of 2023 for French students to study abroad.

It also comes in third place – behind Switzerland and the US – for having the most French people living there.

After Brexit, over 240,000 French people applied for the EU settlement scheme in the UK from 2018 to 2021, and once applications were reviewed, approximately 130,000 received settled status and 93,100 received pre-settled status. 

Among the French, London is sometimes nicknamed ‘France’s sixth city’ due to the number of French people living there.

Polite, well-mannered and funny

The French ranked Brits in 21st place for the question “If visited, people would make me feel very welcome”. This is an increase of two spots from the 2022 results.

When scouring the internet, British politeness does come up often in French clichés about the UK.

Ouest France reported that over a third (36 percent) of French people interviewed for Al Murray’s show “appreciated the politeness and good manners of the English.”

Three out of every 10 people also thought Brits had a good sense of humour – and Brits felt this way about themselves too. 

In a 2009 survey exploring British views of the French, 71 percent of participants said that the French are ‘sexier’ than the British, but 80 percent said the British had a better sense of humour. 

READ MORE: Do the French really have no sense of humour?

Driving on the left-side

And finally, to get a better idea of French opinions about Brits, The Local turned to Google.

We searched both anglais (English) and britanniques (British) because the French do have a bit of a tendency to mix them up and refer to all inhabitants of the UK (and sometimes even the Irish) with the sweeping les anglais. 

The first suggested response had to do with driving on the left-side of the road, which also popped up in the survey by ‘Why does everyone hate the English?’ as the number 1 thing the French ‘hate’ about the British.

READ MORE: Tea and Dordogne: How do the French perceive the Brits?

SHOW COMMENTS