| This is something called the Cineiffel, and it is supposed to contain a "magic box of virtual images depicting Gustave Eiffel and his Tower". I get altogether too much of that at work and I got out of there as quickly as I could. In the background, a group of children was learning civic responsibility by using a remote-control video camera with a high-powered zoom lens to survey the surrounding citizenry, far below. |
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Just in the nick of time, with only five pictures left in the camera, I at last spotted what I had been looking for. It is not, alas, "on top of the Eiffel Tower", only on the first floor, directly underneath the stairs leading to the Cineiffel. The number - +33 (0)1 47 53 75 68 - is displayed, so I suppose it can take incoming calls. |
| In terms of the Payphone Project, the phone's relatively unimpressive location may end up being a boon, since sorabjites who make the pilgrimage to see it need only pay the reduced entry price of nineteen francs to get to the first level (by stairs), as opposed to fifty-nine francs to go to the very top. The phone seems to be pretty well-used. I had to stand in line behind a group of chubby, silver jumpsuit-clad Italian teenagers to get to it. It doesn't take coins, so you'll need a France Telecom card if you want to call anyone. |
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Beaming in the afterglow of a job well done (and perhaps not terribly eager to get to work), I wandered round some more to see if I could find any more payphones. I discovered two in the lobby of the "Altitude 95" Bar and Restaurant, tucked away beside the cloakroom. The numbers for these phones were not displayed. |
| That seems to be all the payphones on the tower, as far as I can tell. There may be more in the Restaurant Jules Verne, or in one of the private conference spaces, but that's not for the likes of you and me. But whoa, what's that? |
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