And the river is a diamond snake …

A classic view of the Eiffel tower from the Trocadero, and I know it’s not quite off the beaten track but I couldn’t resist it on that cold March morning as I was walking towards my early morning meeting two days ago. My Nikon D600 at the ready I took this shot as close to the ground as possible. I love the Eiffel tower, a beautiful Art Nouveau architectural delicacy, which we all take for granted, forgetting that people hated it in the late 1800s and artists even petitioned against it and wanted it destroyed.

It survived the 1920s thanks to its role in detecting the enemy’s war messages in 1914, as our German neighbours were about to invade Paris. The Military were able to summon all the taxis in Paris and send more troops to the East (close to the river Marne, this is why those taxis are called the “Taxis de la Marne).

Artists hated it back then, and they love it now. Like The Nits, in that beautiful 2005 “The Eiffel Tower” song taken from their album Les Nuits, one of the best kept secrets of the Music industry. The Nits are definitely one of the Earth’s finest Pop bands.

Here I am with my child on the Eiffel tower
Looking down
When the light disappears
Paris is a frozen town

Now she turns her face to the camera
A photograph
And the river is a diamond snake
Around her head

I can’t see it anymore
Nobody’s knocking on my door

And we dream that we fall with a parachute
Like angles do
We look at the world through the eyes of birds
Feather words

I can’t feel it anymore
Nobody’s knocking on my door

We land in a street where poets live
Where painters died
The smell in a shop
Vinegar and artichoke

I can’t taste it anymore
Somebody’s knocking on my door

We sleep in a night on the stones of Père
Père Lachaise
We look at the names of Jim Morrison
And Chopin