Paris Mayor Wants To Keep Olympic Rings On Eiffel Tower
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has announced plans to leave the Olympic rings that were placed on the Eiffel Tower to celebrate the 2024 Summer Olympic Games up as a permanent fixture on the historic monument.
However, the descendants of Gustave Eiffel, the individual who was known for designing and building the Tower, have opposed those plans.
The family stated that the Eiffel Tower was “not intended as an advertising platform and that Anne Hidalgo’s announcement that it was for her to decide was incomprehensible,” according to the Guardian.
“As mayor of Paris, the decision is mine,” Mayor Hidalgo said.
“I want the spirit of celebration to remain. I’m delighted that the French have fallen in love with Paris again, after 10 years of bashing and telling us that it [the Olympic Games] was going to be hell,” Hidalgo said in an interview with a regional newspaper.
The Olympic Ring structure currently fixed to the Tower is too heavy to be kept on it permanently, however, Hidalgo said she plans to replace it with a lighter steel replica “as soon as possible.”
“Let the rings remain for a little longer than the Paralympic Games, why not? We have no problem with that,” Olivier Berthelot-Eiffel, Gustave’s great-great grandson and the president of the Association of Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (AGDE), said.
“But the Eiffel Tower is not intended as an advertising platform. Anne Hidalgo should surely have said that she wanted to keep the Olympic rings and asked for the opinion of the Paris city council and other competent people, not that she had decided to do so.”
“While we were delighted, like millions of French citizens, and men and women throughout the world, to see the Eiffel Tower bear the Olympic rings during the Paris Olympic Games 2024, we do not think it appropriate that the Eiffel Tower, which since its construction 135 years ago has become the symbol of Paris and, by extension, of France itself in the world, to carry the symbol of an external organization, whatever its prestige, attached to it on a permanent basis,” the association said.
“The Eiffel Tower, which is a symbol of Paris and France, has a much broader vocation that is associated with an organization or concept like the Olympic Games. The rings on the tower would hinder it being used to promote other events and causes as it has in the past,” Savin Yeatman-Eiffel, another great-great grandson said.
“Before any decisions or announcements are made on this, it is important that all the procedures and consultations aimed at protecting heritage should be respected,” acting culture minister, Rachida Dati, who is expected to run for Paris mayor in 2026, wrote on X.
“The Eiffel Tower is a protected monument, the work of an immense engineer and creator. Respect for his architectural style and his work means this must be authorized and its impact assessed in accordance with heritage rules before any substantial modification is made to it.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.