PARIS Parisians won’t be saying “adieu” to the as early as they expected after the city’s mayor announced plans to leave the Olympic rings as a permanent fixture on the Eiffel Tower. “I want the spirit of celebration to remain,” Mayor Anne Hidalgo told the Ouest-France regional newspaper, saying she did not want the Games to be “a side note” in Parisian history but rather a symbol of “the transformation in the city.” “As mayor of Paris, the decision is mine,” she said.
The Olympic rings adorn the Eiffel Tower in Paris on July 10. But the plans have irked the descendants of Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who designed the famous tower, who say it was “not intended as an advertising platform.” “We do not think it appropriate that the Eiffel Tower.
.. should be permanently associated with an external organization, whatever its prestige,” the Eiffel family said in a statement.
The five rings – 95 feet wide and 43 feet high – were installed on the tower before the Olympics opened in July and were expected to be taken down after the Paralympics Closing Ceremony in September, before Hidalgo’s intervention. Because the rings, which weigh 30 tons, are too heavy to remain on the tower permanently, they will be replaced with lighter versions, Paris’ deputy mayor, Pierre Rabadan, told CNN. Medallists parade in front of the Eiffel Tower during the Games.
“We have so many questions not resolved yet because the original rings were heavy and built for te.