Valentine’s Day Gift Giving - The Eiffel Tower’s Diamond Lights

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Category: Gift Guides
Published on Monday, 05 February 2018 07:58
Written by Janet Walker

Every night, for the first five minutes of every hour, 20,000 bulbs make Eiffel Tower sparkle in the Parisian sky. Having reached the end of their useful lives, 450 of these bulbs have been taken down and made into outstanding ornaments.

Christened the "Diamond Light", this unique piece comes with a certificate of provenance. It is an original gift idea for couples in love who would like to give a (little) piece of history from Paris' most famous monument to their soul mate this Valentine's Day.

A Unique, Authentic Piece, Imbued with Emotion

The Eiffel Tower is offering a limited number of these collectors' items for sale, giving the new owners some of the Tower's own sparkle. The sparkling Eiffel Tower is a daily show first created in the year 2000 by the lighting designer Pierre Bideau. The flash bulbs, true "Diamond Lights", have all been removed from the Tower and then affixed to a riveted supple steel base. Soft to the touch, it evokes the puddled iron which Gustave Eiffel used to build his tower.

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Each Diamond Light is unique, and bears the marks of a life on the Tower – brush strokes, imperfections... – each testament to its history and authenticity. Furthermore, its packaging was designed to fit the monument's authentic, "industrial" spirit.

To Give this Exceptional Gift...

Imagined as a true decorative collectors' item, only 450 numbered "Diamond Lights" are available, affixed to a base in "bright Venetian red", the original colour of the Eiffel Tower from 1889 to 1892. It is available for €540 inc. VAT (including postage to any address) from the Eiffel Tower website, along with a print of Caren Georges engraving "The Eiffel Tower ablaze during the 1889 Universal Expo".

To learn more about the "Diamond Lights", head to: scintillement.toureiffel.paris

About the Eiffel Tower's sparkle

Created by the lighting designer Pierre Bideau to celebrate the new millennium, this daily spectacle continues to delight both Parisians and tourists from all over the world. 20,000 flash bulbs (5000 per side) contribute to the sparkling which runs for the first five minutes of every hour after nightfall.

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About the Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower Operating Company)

SETE is a local public company whose capital is 60% owned by the City of Paris and 40% by the Department of Paris. Its Board of Directors is chaired by Bernard Gaudillère, Councillor of Paris. SETE, which has around 340 employees and achieved a 77.8 million euro turnover in 2016, is headed by Anne Yannic.

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