According to Atlas Obscura, the tiny apartment was perched 1000 feet in the air, providing Eiffel with a bird’s-eye view of 1890s-era Paris. He furnished the lofty abode with wallpaper, cabinets, furniture, oil paintings, and a grand piano. There was also a small adjacent room with laboratory equipment, which allowed Eiffel to conduct meteorological observations, The Independent writes.

While many elite members of the public clamored to rent the space, Eiffel shunned their exorbitant offers. Instead, he used it to greet illustrious guests like Thomas Edison (who gave him a phonograph machine as a gift), or as a quiet space for solitary reflection.

Author Jill Jonnes provides a great visual image of what an evening was like in Eiffel’s private apartment in her 2010 book Eiffel’s Tower: The Thrilling Story Behind Paris’s Beloved Monument and the Extraordinary World’s Fair That Introduced It. She describes one evening that Edison and other luminaries spent in Eiffel’s aerie:

“The guests settled in on the dark velvet settees trimmed in fringe. The walls, a warm yellow, were already covered with framed artistic mementos: photographs, drawings, paintings. “Eiffel has a piano there,” said Edison. “Gounoud, the composer of ‘Faust,’ played and sang, and he did it splendidly, too, despite his more than eighty years.” High above Paris, Gounoud’s music wafted forth as the guests smoked cigars, drank brandy, talked, and even sang, a magical late-summer interlude. Working quietly in the background was American artist A.A. Anderson, best known for his oil portraits, but invited by Eiffel to try to capture Edison’s likeness as best he could in a sculpted bust that would commemorate this occasion of genius honoring genius.”

The apartment was closed to the public for years, but in May 2015, Condé Nast Traveler announced that it would open to visitors. You can’t stay overnight, but you can peer into the space – which contains its original furnishings, along with life-size mannequins of Eiffel and Edison—and admire the private hideaway of the famous French civil engineer and architect.

source: mentalfloss

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39,900Ft Original price was: 39,900Ft.29,900FtCurrent price is: 29,900Ft.

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ANGOL Nyelvtan+Szókincs – átfogó 40 részes videókurzus, középfokra készülőknek is

59,900Ft Original price was: 59,900Ft.49,900FtCurrent price is: 49,900Ft.

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Kezdő szintről középfokra (Level 1-2-3-4-5)

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The Louvre and Orsay museums were shut while staff moved artworks to safety as flood levels climbed above 6m (18ft).

The Seine, though it appears to have peaked at 6.1m, is unlikely to recede over the weekend with more downpours forecast.

In Paris, the Cluny – La Sorbonne and St Michel metro stations were closed as a precaution while the river spilled onto the city’s streets.

Bridges were closed and non-emergency boats were banned from the Seine as its swelling forced the closure of museums, parks and cemeteries.

At the Louvre, curators scrambled to move 250,000 artworks to higher ground from basement storage areas at risk of inundation from what President Francoise Hollande called “exceptional flooding”.

Authorities have even taken initial steps to transfer the presidency and key ministries to secure areas, AP news agency reported.

An apparent equipment fault led to the river’s depth being wrongly measured for several hours on Friday.

Many locals have preferred to benchmark the rise against the statue of a soldier – known as the Zouave – standing below the Alma Bridge: His frame is currently submerged up to the waist.

While France’s rainfall levels in May were the highest since 1873, the current crisis is eclipsed by the 1910 floods that saw Paris submerged for two months, when the Zouave was up to his neck in the Seine.

The river level peaked at 8.62m that year, and has since reached 7.1m in 1955 and 6.18m in 1982.

source: BBC

Paris is to remove padlocks symbolically fastened to one of the French capital’s main bridges by couples. Tying a ‘love lock’ on to the Pont des Arts before throwing the key into the River Seine beneath has become a tourist tradition in recent years. For years, visitors have been attaching locks with sentimental messages to the bridge in symbolic acts of affection. Some further seal the deal by throwing keys into the Seine River below.

But part of the bridge collapsed under the weight last year. The city launched an unsuccessful initiative in August 2014 to end the practice, urging visitors to instead take selfies on the bridge. Unsightly wooden panels were placed over the locks in February to discourage the practice for Valentine’s Day.

City officials say all locks will all be removed from Monday as they pose a safety risk. Close to a million padlocks – weighing 45 tonnes – are expected to be cut off. The Pont de l’Archeveche, near the Notre Dame cathedral, will also have locks removed from its side. Metal grilles on the side of the Pont des Arts, which dates to 1804, will be replaced by paintings over the summer, before transparent panels are put in place later this year.

“We want Paris to remain the capital of love and romance,” said Bruno Julliard, Paris’ deputy mayor, adding that there would be new initiatives encouraging people to express their love in other ways. A campaign by the city last year to get people to take selfies instead of attaching locks was not successful.

On Friday, a statement by the city council said the tradition “has led to two big problems: significant damage to our heritage, and a risk to visitors’ security”. Venice has also struggled to deter tourists from attaching locks to the Rialto bridge, and in New York, amateur locksmiths launched a campaign to remove locks from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Source: BBC, CNN

‘Mum thinks I’m a pillock’: Teenager went for drunken night out in Oldham… and woke up in a toilet in PARIS

A teenager who went out clubbing in Manchester with his mates woke up in Paris the following morning after booking a flight in the early hours. Luke Harding was getting a cab home from the Tokyo Project nightclub, nicknamed Tokes, in Oldham when he found his passport in his pocket and drunkenly decided to visit the Eiffel Tower.

Mr Harding, a sheet metal worker, asked the shocked taxi driver to head immediately for Manchester Airport then booked a last minute 6am flight for £100 through Flybe to the French capital using his mobile phone. The 19-year-old eventually woke up in a toilet cubicle at Charles De Gaulle Airport – 500 miles (800 km) from where he started his night to remember.

Pals nursing a giant hangover from a night out at the club were stunned to see a sheepish Luke had tweeted a picture of himself standing next to the Eiffel Tower and then another with the caption: ‘Sat outside the Arc De Triumph (sic) eating a croissant.’ News of his unexpected excursion spread like wildfire around the social media site with many messages poking fun at the travelling teenager.

In a series of tweets from Paris, Luke said: ‘Only woke up in the toilets of Charles de Gaulle airport an hour ago and half of Oldham know haha.’ He added: ‘I got in a taxi to Manchester airport and booked a flight on my phone! Don’t remember the flight. It’s f***ing expensive here though. Mum thinks I’m a pillock. Walked past the Eiffel Tower 3 times! Not a clue where I am!’

He was eventually picked up 12 hours later at Manchester by friends when he had to pay out a further £170 to get a flight back to the UK. The entire escapade cost him a total of £300.

source: www.dailymail.co.uk

to go clubbing – szórakozni menni klubokba
mate – haver, társ
to book – lefoglalni
in the early hours – hajnalban
cab – taxi
nicknamed – becézett
drunkenly – részegen
sheet metal – fémlemez
eventually – végül
toilet cubicle – wc fülke
hangover – másnaposság
stunned – megdöbbent
sheepish – félénk, itt mafla
unexpected – váratlan
to spread like wildfire – futótűzként terjed
to poke fun at someone – gúnyolódni, ugratni valakit
to add – hozzátenni
pillock – tökfilkó
not a clue – fogalma sincs valamiről
entire – egész
escapade – kiruccanás, kaland

TRUE or FALSE? 

1. Luke Harding booked his flight the previous day.

2. He was shocked to find himself in a toilet in Paris.

3. Luke’s mom thinks he was really stupid to do this.

4. Many people think he had lots of fun in Paris.

5. Luke got home the same day from Paris.

 answers: 1-F 2-T 3-T 4-F 5-T

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0

false
false
false

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