The Eiffel Tower has had a makeover in anticipation of the 2024 Olympic Games. On the occasion of its 20e painting campaign, it regained the yellow-brown color it had at the beginning of the 20the century. But would the Iron Lady hide under this new appearance a worrying state? The weekly Marianne sounded the alarm in its June 30 edition. With a shock hook (“We saw Notre-Dame burn, will we see the Eiffel Tower fall?”), the magazine evokes several confidential reports, carried out in 2010 and 2016, which would denounce a very degraded state of the monument and a maintenance leaving something to be desired. According to sources who have remained anonymous, the restoration campaign which has just ended would not have been up to the challenges of conservation, contenting itself with stripping 5% of the surface on the southern arch, located on the side of the Champ- de-Mars, and to apply yet another coat of paint elsewhere.
Built in 1889 in wrought iron, the Eiffel Tower is vulnerable to rust. Gustave Eiffel himself recommended repainting it on average every seven years. Launched in 2019, the current works were initially intended to completely strip 15% of the painted surface, a historic first, but their ambition was subsequently reduced. Construction interruptions, linked to the health crisis and the discovery of lead in the oldest layers of paint, led to its cost almost tripling, from 32 to 84 million.
An « impeccable » fer puddle
Faced with the accusations, the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (Sete), which ensures on behalf of the City of Paris (owner) the conservation and opening to the public of the monument, defended itself from any deleterious management. Tower “has never been so preserved as now”, said its general manager, Patrick Branco Ruivo, on Monday, specifying that in the stripped area « lThe wrought iron was impeccable, even though we were in the most damaged part”.
With 6 million visitors per year, the Eiffel Tower is the fourth most visited paying cultural site in France. From the beginning of 2022, it returned to a pre-Covid level of attendance, with more than 20,000 visitors per day. This manna is an argument for those who think that a more ambitious restoration should be planned.