Two Terrible Towers

 

The Eiffel Tower at dusk, photographed from Trocadero.

The Eiffel Tower was constructed for the 1889 World Fair. Today it's the most visited paid entry monument in the world, with 7 million visitors annually. But more or less everyone at the time it was constructed hated it. It was derided as skeletal, as if it was just the framework for an unfinished building. It was a 'skyscraper' in a low rise city. It was metal, in a city built of white limestone. So unattractive that 'even the Americans wouldn't stomach it'. It was so reviled that it took 70 years for permission for another skyscraper to be built to be granted. That was the equally reviled Montparnasse Tower, which is still considered a blot on the landscape. It does claim, with some justification, to have the best views in Paris though.

The Eiffel Tower, from the other side of the Seine, in flood and threatening nearby houseboats.

The mid-20C Montparnasse Tower in the distance, photographed from the Eiffel Tower. You can see why the Montparnasse Tower is not loved.