Paris (AFP)

Distancing signs, new fun activities, lower prices for young people ... the Eiffel Tower is preparing to reopen its doors on June 25, hoping to attract Parisians often discouraged by the long queues of foreign tourists.

Monday, officials and workers were hard at work to prepare everything for the reopening of the most famous monument in the capital, after three months of closure due to coronavirus.

The wearing of the mask will be compulsory, a thousand pastilles and bilingual blue / French / English bands have been affixed to the ground to invite visitors to "keep their distance" (1.50m). The first eight days, only the 1st and 2nd floors will be accessible, by the staircase only (climb by the eastern pillar staircase, descent by the western one, so that people do not meet).

The stake is all the more important as the confinement resulted in a loss of 9 million euros per month, according to Patrick Branco Ruivo, managing director of the operating company Tour Eiffel.

All speak with passion of this immense "puzzle of 18,000 pieces weighing 10,000 tons, connected by 2.5 million rivets", decorated with more than 350 large lamps of illumination and 20,000 small lamps which run throughout the structure for flicker for 5 minutes every hour between dusk and 1:00 a.m.

"Even during the confinement, the lighting and the flickering of the Eiffel Tower, with its circular radius coming from four lighthouses located at the very top of the tower, never stopped," proudly launches Eric Camdessanché, team leader electricians.

- DJ set -

Masons and painters strip, repaint the structure in a bright yellow-brown color (the tower should be completely repainted by 2022), while specialists are at the bedside of the two hydraulic elevators of the East and West pillars, coating their pistons with elevation with heated beef soot, as in the time of Gustave Eiffel.

"I want the Ile-de-France and Parisians to come back to visit the Eiffel Tower, to rediscover Paris from above. Of course, everyone loves it. But at the same time, they hesitate to come, say to themselves that it 'is a + monument to tourists + and fear having to queue too long ", explains Mr. Branco Ruivo, inviting, from the second floor of the tower, to admire the capital which stretches 115 meters below.

To attract visitors, he and his team have devised a winning strategy: 50% reduction in the price of the entry ticket for children aged 4 to 11 (now set at two euros), promotion campaign with works councils, purchase of tickets and information facilitated on the internet, children's route. In connection with the City of Paris, "performing arts" artists will also be invited to perform.

A large summer terrace, overlooking the Champ de Mars, has been set up on the 1st floor, 57 meters high, where burgers and ice creams will be offered, and even, for some time, wine from the Ile-de-France vineyards but aged in barrels on the Eiffel Tower.

To attract young people, every Thursday and Friday, from July 9, it will be DJ set. For those who prefer great cuisine, the Jules Verne restaurant, with chef Frédéric Anton (one Michelin star), will also reopen on June 30.

© 2020 AFP