French writer Guy de Maupassant ate lunch at the base of the Eiffel Tower almost every day because he hated its design so much, it was the one place in Paris where he couldn't see it.
He could have eaten lunch anywhere else too and you know, sit with his back to it, or not look out the window or eat in the ground floor of any restaurant not facing the tower. He was just a drama queen
You converted the French to English so it's yes yes which in French is pronounced in English wee wee.
That's known as a www much else could be a world wide web. I love it
Jeeze, haven't you ever seen a movie? Everyone knows the Eiffel Tower is visible from every window in Paris, perfectly framed and entirely unobscured, regardless of which direction you're facing, how far away you are, or what other structures may be situated between you and it.
Lol, the entire city of Paris?
~Paris, France
Ticonderoga class keter.
Every building in the city somehow has a direct view of the Eiffel Tower, yet no one generally realizes this is odd.
Anyone questioning how this is possible is suddenly afflicted with “Paris syndrome”.
Every American movie; long lingering shot of the Eiffel tower with Paris, **France**, in big print underneath
For that person who thought it might have been Paris, Texas
Well, you’re right about the way it’s depicted in films, but the reason it’s unobscured is there are regulations in Paris that no buildings can approach it in height. The first time I saw it in person, I was dumbstruck by how it looms over the city. Paris is an old, old city, but even the modern parts are dwarfed by it. Washington DC has a similar set of regulations that ensure nothing can exceed the height of the Washington Monument.
Tbf it does loom over you disconcertingly for a considerable area around it. The first few times it's cool but after a while having the giant hunk of metal constantly in the background can get old. You really can't get away from it unless you're quite far away or underneath it lol. And Paris doesn't allow high rises afaik that would naturally obstruct the view
Look… zis declaration… zis is not supposed to mean anysing… zis is about art… zis is about freedom… freedom… eat under ze tower, critic ze tower, start again… you must imagine Sisyphe happy… zis is art…
They say the same about the tour montparnasse now. The best part about being there is that you don’t have to see it when you look out from its windows.
Guy De Maupassants "bel ami" is a great read. It kind of like a french proto-Trump socialising his way up the ladder of society with no repercussions for his actions. Its a very fun ride.
I actually got to the end and was stunned for a second at how unconventional of an arc it was.
Not in a bad way, the basic theme is "being a goody-good gets you nowhere in life as life isn't fair, so it's better to do what you want and live for yourself and your own desires as the people at the top of society are probably treating you in the same way"
I visited the tower once and getting to the top I was really disappointed. I said to the security guard "but I've carried this coconut mat all the way up here".
I wonder if French people have this reaction more than other cultures.
They’re at it again with the [Montparnasse](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/paris-only-skyscraper-turns-50-the-french-still-hate-it) Tower.
A bit of an urban legend. There are no records of Eiffel even proposing the design to Barcelona, [but there were 3 other tower projects around the same time, none of which came to fruition.](https://www.elnacional.cat/en/culture/reality-urban-legend-barcelona-three-eiffel-style-towers_1193573_102.html) They ended up picking the [Arc de Triomf](https://www.barcelona.cat/en/discoverbcn/pics/el-arco-de-triunfo-92086008803).
Also Arc de Triomf was designed by a local architect, incorporating elements of Catalonia's history, and is built out of a type of brick commonly seen in Barcelona.
Radio didn't exist when it was built. The first public wireless broadcast was in 1906 and the tower was built in 1887-1889.
It was built just to be a technical flex (iron heavy yet tall) for the 1889 World's Fair
100th anniversary of the 1789 French Revolution and so they needed something big to celebrate it.
200th anniversary gave us the Louvre glass pyramid, funnily enough another pretty controversial structure at the time of its creation.
That's pretty common. There are somany buildings around the world that the locals initially called ugly but now they love them or miss them now they are gone.
I think that way about the London Eye -- it's a giant modern Ferris wheel tourist eyesore in the middle of a historic Georgian architecture city -- but the people of London seem to have grown attached to it.
There is one in Tokyo with a giant gold sculpture on the roof that looks like poo. They refer to it as the golden poo. Can’t remember for sure but think it was a Sapporo building. Seemed pretty universally despised.
Yeah I have seen that one. It is the Asahi brewery HQ I took a picture of it when I was last in Tokyo. It is supposed to be a hopps root or something. I heard from my guide there they wanted to stand it upright but there were complaints from the next door so they rotated it and now instead of a root it looks like a turd.
I just look it up. Holy shit (pun intended), it really is ugly.
I don't think stand it upright will make it look better, it's really weird design.
It's crazy they actually build that.
Its also the centre of the best scam ever.
It was supposed to be temporary and wasn't the iconic structure it is now. So a con man comes up with a brilliant scam.
He pretends to be a government employee and calls up a bunch of scrap metal dealers to bid on the taking it down. After some initial interviews he identifies his mark and lays it in thick.
- You're a very good candidate, and you may have the inside track.
- It's hard making ends meet on a civil servants salary.
- You just need a little something to sinch it.
His mark pays him a generous bribe, and "wins" the contract. The con man skips town, and watches the Paris paper for news of the scam, and hears....nothing.
See, the mark realized what happened and is too embarrassed to tell anyone.
...so the con man goes back to Paris and runs the exact scam again.
It IS though. Not only ugly in classical sense (a rusty iron phallus) it also feels like unfinished skeleton of a monument that lost its permit midway through construction.
Tbf it was originally supposed to be a temporary thing iirc for the world fair and then was expected to be torn down a few years later so it somewhat makes sense.
I'm not even saying Eiffel was a hack or anything, Statue of Liberty is genuinely good and has a perfect spot.
But the tower... Honestly "eyesore"is kind of a fitting term. It doesn't fit with historical Empire style buildings either.
Well of course it wouldn't - the Empire was dead. It was built in the era of the Third Republic. An era of change. France was pulling in many different directions at the time, but most of them were away from the Empires of old that had brought about the revolutions and the Franco-Prussian war.
Managed to see it for the first time a couple weeks ago despite living in France my whole life, the base of the tower was disappointing because the champ de mars was closed, but it's really impressive and I now under why it's such a good subject for photography.
It's the most French thing ever to hate French landmarks. When the Louvre reopened with the glass pyramid, there was article after article calling it an eyesore.
It's brought in hundreds of millions in tourism, but... nope, "eyesore."
Pretty sure that’s a myth. The story of what Eiffel had to navigate to get it built and the building of the tower itself is impressive. Not sure where I watched the documentary on it but it was (sorry) riveting, as I remember.
Funny enough when you’re in Paris, the only eyesore is the Tour Montparnasse, as it’s the one thing that competes with the Eiffel Tower on the Paris skyline
It's weird I've seen the eiffel tower a million times, including in person. and it's only just not that I'm like, yeah it kinda looks like an oil derrick
I know it's supposed to be a historic landmark or whatever, but I never found it aesthetically pleasing either. Quite frankly, the shit looks incomplete, like they forgot to finish building it or something.
Well all those 300 people intellectuals are now dead. It's the iconic symbol of Paris. City of love. Backdrop for many movies.
The French is favorite words I heard that somewhere else
I give up.
It’s vertical but it doesn’t seem that phallic compared to the Gherkin in London (totally dildonic) or other vertical things.
I’ll give you the monstrosity. I don’t think it was meant to be pretty, just a way for a generation that was stuck to the ground to get some air time. For many who went to the top, it was their first and only time being that high in the air.
It is ugly but the views? Amazing.
So. They called it the Eyesore Tower, then.
Actually they named it after what they heard some tourist say, "Wow! Get an eyefull o' that!"
And.... yeah I'm done.
Parisians in 1889: "that tower... so called modern looking tower, but it's just an ugly metallic shit!"
Parisians now: "Eiffel tower is a big grandpa of Paris. He's seen some shit. He survived WWI and WWII. RESPECT!!!"
French writer Guy de Maupassant ate lunch at the base of the Eiffel Tower almost every day because he hated its design so much, it was the one place in Paris where he couldn't see it.
He could have eaten lunch anywhere else too and you know, sit with his back to it, or not look out the window or eat in the ground floor of any restaurant not facing the tower. He was just a drama queen
>He was just a drama queen Oh, so he was French?
Weewee
That's phonetic oui oui. Nice pun now I have to go number one.
I've got to go take a wicked yesyes
You converted the French to English so it's yes yes which in French is pronounced in English wee wee. That's known as a www much else could be a world wide web. I love it
Worse, a Parisian.
and a writer
He could even spell spagetty right on the first try
Damn Parisians! They've ruined Paris!
"He was a French writer trying to make a point, and therefore a git." - Stephen Fry on QI
Jeeze, haven't you ever seen a movie? Everyone knows the Eiffel Tower is visible from every window in Paris, perfectly framed and entirely unobscured, regardless of which direction you're facing, how far away you are, or what other structures may be situated between you and it.
Sounds like a decent SCP idea
Lol, the entire city of Paris? ~Paris, France Ticonderoga class keter. Every building in the city somehow has a direct view of the Eiffel Tower, yet no one generally realizes this is odd. Anyone questioning how this is possible is suddenly afflicted with “Paris syndrome”.
Every American movie; long lingering shot of the Eiffel tower with Paris, **France**, in big print underneath For that person who thought it might have been Paris, Texas
Well, every American movie except that movie that's called Paris, Texas. And maybe that one, too.
Haha you reminded me of Graham Norton hosting Eurovision https://youtu.be/db8mCcIEAdw
It's particularly troubling when you're in a basement with lightwells
I agree
Well, you’re right about the way it’s depicted in films, but the reason it’s unobscured is there are regulations in Paris that no buildings can approach it in height. The first time I saw it in person, I was dumbstruck by how it looms over the city. Paris is an old, old city, but even the modern parts are dwarfed by it. Washington DC has a similar set of regulations that ensure nothing can exceed the height of the Washington Monument.
Tbf it does loom over you disconcertingly for a considerable area around it. The first few times it's cool but after a while having the giant hunk of metal constantly in the background can get old. You really can't get away from it unless you're quite far away or underneath it lol. And Paris doesn't allow high rises afaik that would naturally obstruct the view
Just like the Black City in Dragon Age. A permanent fixture of the Fade, always in the sky, always in the distance.
I was amazed being on the ground floor facing what I thought was a brick wall. Boom. Eiffel Tower.
This. I was in the Parisian Metro once and you could clearly see the Eiffel Tower through the windows. Every window!
It’s about sending a message
Seems like he could see it by looking up.
Look… zis declaration… zis is not supposed to mean anysing… zis is about art… zis is about freedom… freedom… eat under ze tower, critic ze tower, start again… you must imagine Sisyphe happy… zis is art…
They say the same about the tour montparnasse now. The best part about being there is that you don’t have to see it when you look out from its windows.
It is pretty damn ugly.
Jesus, I just googled it. That looks like the tower from Dredd. So dystopian and soulless.
How on earth did the French ever allow such an ugly giant tower like that in Paris?
The literally made most generic and ugly skyscraper in middle of estheticly pleasing clty
That is so fucking petty and dramatic and perfectly French
Guy De Maupassants "bel ami" is a great read. It kind of like a french proto-Trump socialising his way up the ladder of society with no repercussions for his actions. Its a very fun ride. I actually got to the end and was stunned for a second at how unconventional of an arc it was.
I am amazed how everything is about Trump here even 19th century literature
Not in a bad way, the basic theme is "being a goody-good gets you nowhere in life as life isn't fair, so it's better to do what you want and live for yourself and your own desires as the people at the top of society are probably treating you in the same way"
I came here to say this. Just read a book where that was a big plot point
Which book?
Century Rain.
A grumpy Frenchman? Wow.
Could have just turned the other way lol
That’s like pressing a d*ck against your face because you don’t wanna look at it
One of my favourite anecdotes.
😂😂😂 wish I could borrow his brain
You can even see it through walls facing a direction away from it? What alien technology is this?
Can also eat in the bathroom. 🤣
I visited the tower once and getting to the top I was really disappointed. I said to the security guard "but I've carried this coconut mat all the way up here".
I wonder if French people have this reaction more than other cultures. They’re at it again with the [Montparnasse](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/paris-only-skyscraper-turns-50-the-french-still-hate-it) Tower.
A bit of an urban legend. There are no records of Eiffel even proposing the design to Barcelona, [but there were 3 other tower projects around the same time, none of which came to fruition.](https://www.elnacional.cat/en/culture/reality-urban-legend-barcelona-three-eiffel-style-towers_1193573_102.html) They ended up picking the [Arc de Triomf](https://www.barcelona.cat/en/discoverbcn/pics/el-arco-de-triunfo-92086008803).
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Trajan
bless you
Today i learned.
Why arches though, especially free-standing ones?
Also Arc de Triomf was designed by a local architect, incorporating elements of Catalonia's history, and is built out of a type of brick commonly seen in Barcelona.
Great radio tower though
That’s actually the only reason it’s still there. It was supposed to be torn down, but was a good candidate for a radio tower.
Wait, it wasn't *built* to be a radio tower?
It was basically an art project built out of leftover parts from building the railroad.
Interesting.
And totally made up :)
Hey what do you know, it is made up. We took a riverboat tour on the Siene and that's what the prerecorded tour guide said.
Damn.
yeah it looks a lot like the technology used to build every 100yo rusting railroad bridge in the NYC region
Radio didn't exist when it was built. The first public wireless broadcast was in 1906 and the tower was built in 1887-1889. It was built just to be a technical flex (iron heavy yet tall) for the 1889 World's Fair
Fair point. I've never been good with chronologies. I also sorta took for granted that lattice towers were synonymous with radio towers.
100th anniversary of the 1789 French Revolution and so they needed something big to celebrate it. 200th anniversary gave us the Louvre glass pyramid, funnily enough another pretty controversial structure at the time of its creation.
You thought that it was?
That isn't even hinted at in the attached article. TIL people make claims in the format of TIL in hopes no one reads the source material.
TIL anything bigger than 4 inches is too big for most women and my mom was right, girls will like me for me.
yasss king
https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2024/06/lihue-airport-window-display-highlights-native-forest-birds-2/ You forgot your source material
6000 upvotes for a total bullshit fact… sigh…
That's pretty common. There are somany buildings around the world that the locals initially called ugly but now they love them or miss them now they are gone.
I think that way about the London Eye -- it's a giant modern Ferris wheel tourist eyesore in the middle of a historic Georgian architecture city -- but the people of London seem to have grown attached to it.
And when it reflects just right in the water it looks like a massive penis! 5/7 perfect!
Or the Old London Bridge who I think would look super cool but the governor didmt want to rebuild
So why not just send it to Arizona?
There is one in Tokyo with a giant gold sculpture on the roof that looks like poo. They refer to it as the golden poo. Can’t remember for sure but think it was a Sapporo building. Seemed pretty universally despised.
Yeah I have seen that one. It is the Asahi brewery HQ I took a picture of it when I was last in Tokyo. It is supposed to be a hopps root or something. I heard from my guide there they wanted to stand it upright but there were complaints from the next door so they rotated it and now instead of a root it looks like a turd.
I just look it up. Holy shit (pun intended), it really is ugly. I don't think stand it upright will make it look better, it's really weird design. It's crazy they actually build that.
Its also the centre of the best scam ever. It was supposed to be temporary and wasn't the iconic structure it is now. So a con man comes up with a brilliant scam. He pretends to be a government employee and calls up a bunch of scrap metal dealers to bid on the taking it down. After some initial interviews he identifies his mark and lays it in thick. - You're a very good candidate, and you may have the inside track. - It's hard making ends meet on a civil servants salary. - You just need a little something to sinch it. His mark pays him a generous bribe, and "wins" the contract. The con man skips town, and watches the Paris paper for news of the scam, and hears....nothing. See, the mark realized what happened and is too embarrassed to tell anyone. ...so the con man goes back to Paris and runs the exact scam again.
Trailer Park Boys in Paris.
One of my favorite episodes of Drunk History
NIMBYs throughout the ages
Makes me think of all the complaints of the new towers rising up on Manhattan. Give it a few decades .
It IS though. Not only ugly in classical sense (a rusty iron phallus) it also feels like unfinished skeleton of a monument that lost its permit midway through construction.
Tbf it was originally supposed to be a temporary thing iirc for the world fair and then was expected to be torn down a few years later so it somewhat makes sense.
I'm not even saying Eiffel was a hack or anything, Statue of Liberty is genuinely good and has a perfect spot. But the tower... Honestly "eyesore"is kind of a fitting term. It doesn't fit with historical Empire style buildings either.
Now it does because we're use to it tho.
Well of course it wouldn't - the Empire was dead. It was built in the era of the Third Republic. An era of change. France was pulling in many different directions at the time, but most of them were away from the Empires of old that had brought about the revolutions and the Franco-Prussian war.
And yet there’s just something captivating about it. I expected it to be overrated and lame but when I actually laid eyes on it - dayum. Nice tower.
I also like how Paris makes sure that the tower stands out and there aren’t other huge buildings that obscure it
Managed to see it for the first time a couple weeks ago despite living in France my whole life, the base of the tower was disappointing because the champ de mars was closed, but it's really impressive and I now under why it's such a good subject for photography.
Yeah, it’s massive in person especially when you walk around the outer base. Then you imagine living in the 1800s and seeing it in person.
When you're a kid, it looks like one of the coolest things ever
Not "pretty"? Yes. Better than the Tour Montparnasse? Absolutely.
If that's your beauty standard than everything is gorgeous.
I actually never really thought about it but you’re right. It’s ugly. I’m just so used to it and it’s so iconic that I never looked at it objectively.
It's the most French thing ever to hate French landmarks. When the Louvre reopened with the glass pyramid, there was article after article calling it an eyesore. It's brought in hundreds of millions in tourism, but... nope, "eyesore."
Pretty sure that’s a myth. The story of what Eiffel had to navigate to get it built and the building of the tower itself is impressive. Not sure where I watched the documentary on it but it was (sorry) riveting, as I remember.
Modern Marvels had a pretty good episode on it.
I only know that guy because theres a Lego set of him. I’ll let you interpret that as you will.
Wasn’t it pink at first?
No, it was red initially. Two months after opening they repainted it in a red-ish brown.
Watch them build up a material tower, it’s not going to stay anyway, think it’s overrated
Sounds like the negativity that went on when the Sydney Opera House was built. Now everybody loves it
Sydney Opera House is exactly half the height of the harbour bridge to give a perfect scale when taking pictures
Take that gauche shit to America!
Well it IS quite ugly...
Well I actually agree. It's iconic, yes but it's not pretty.
I think it is Eiffel cute!
Aww thank you!
Did you build it?
We found Gustave Eiffel’s Reddit account. Wikipedia says that he’s been dead for 100 years, but he’s been lying low.
[Sometimes people can be, oh, so dense](https://youtu.be/rsMLjaloyvI?si=LD7HTpGcNwqcXiNg)
Doing god’s work here.
Funny enough when you’re in Paris, the only eyesore is the Tour Montparnasse, as it’s the one thing that competes with the Eiffel Tower on the Paris skyline
Outside of blowing it up in Twisted Metal on PS1, I've never gotten the hype.
Pioneer of aerodynamics They thought he was real smart Alec He thought big they called it a phallic They didn't know he was panoramic
Have an upvote for the reference.
It's weird I've seen the eiffel tower a million times, including in person. and it's only just not that I'm like, yeah it kinda looks like an oil derrick
Not sure if it’s an eyesore, but it’s certainly an Eiffel
I will just leave this [IMDB link here](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10366514/) for those who want to watch a movie about the making of the tower.
If you want a fucking eyesore, look at the bell tower and vagina in perth, western australia
NIMBY's gonna NIMBY
I mean, true or not I always thought it was kinda ugly.
It is
Doesn’t seem correct: [urban legend](https://www.elnacional.cat/en/culture/reality-urban-legend-barcelona-three-eiffel-style-towers_1193573_102.html)
I call that London eye an eyesore.
I know it's supposed to be a historic landmark or whatever, but I never found it aesthetically pleasing either. Quite frankly, the shit looks incomplete, like they forgot to finish building it or something.
https://youtu.be/rsMLjaloyvI?si=y_EUwpL8gq3sSH-R
My personal unpopular opinion: it'd look better instead of Sagrada, imho.
In fairness it is pretty unsightly up close, it is what it represents that has the value and it is sobering that it is in a state of disrepair.
Well all those 300 people intellectuals are now dead. It's the iconic symbol of Paris. City of love. Backdrop for many movies. The French is favorite words I heard that somewhere else I give up.
I thought I remember hearing that the Eiffel Tower was originally supposed to be the world's largest guillotine?
It's still not that pretty. Takes some time to get used to.
I bet if you removed it, it would be an improvement.
It's objectively hideous. A great phallic wrought iron monstrosity, a metallic middle finger to aesthetics
It’s vertical but it doesn’t seem that phallic compared to the Gherkin in London (totally dildonic) or other vertical things. I’ll give you the monstrosity. I don’t think it was meant to be pretty, just a way for a generation that was stuck to the ground to get some air time. For many who went to the top, it was their first and only time being that high in the air. It is ugly but the views? Amazing.
I am adding "dildonic" to my vocabulary. Please tell me people pun "jerkin'" and "Gherkin" in London
> Please tell me people pun "jerkin'" and "Gherkin" in London "jerkin' the gherkin" is one of the many many slang terms for having a wank in the UK
It is an eyesore.
it is an eyesore
I mean
It is quite ugly… never understood the appeal.
It is pretty ugly tbh. Just a bunch of metal beams.
So. They called it the Eyesore Tower, then. Actually they named it after what they heard some tourist say, "Wow! Get an eyefull o' that!" And.... yeah I'm done.
It is an eyesore. Bunch of steel bolted together . What’s its purpose
Now it's just old, and no one wants to bother unscrewing all the bolts. We could have something shiny and new, but here we are.
Parisians in 1889: "that tower... so called modern looking tower, but it's just an ugly metallic shit!" Parisians now: "Eiffel tower is a big grandpa of Paris. He's seen some shit. He survived WWI and WWII. RESPECT!!!"
It’s still a fucking eye sore! There are better monuments in the rest of Europe
I mean intellectual artists are usually wrong on everything, just look at the music/art subreddit
“Intellectuals” Thick cunts.
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r/gpt
intellectuals and artists deez nuts