法国埃菲尔铁塔换新装庆生日

The Eiffel Tower is to get a fresh coat of brown paint for its 120th birthday, but will stay open to the public throughout the 18-month makeover, operators said on Tuesday.

Two dozen mountaineer-painters will coat the Paris monument in 60 tons of environmentally-friendly paint, in a specially-mixed hue called "Eiffel Tower Brown" chosen to blend well with the city landscape. It will be the 19th paint job for the landmark, which gets a new coat every seven years.

Soaring 324 meters above the Paris skyline, the tower is the world's most visited tourist attraction, drawing some 6 million people each year.

In the past the tower has gone from reddish brown to ochre-brown, yellow, brownish-yellow and dark red, before operators settled in 1968 on the current color.

"This is the color that suits the tower best - its most elegant dress," Jean-Bernard Bros, head of the company that operates the tower, told reporters. "That is what all those who love the Eiffel Tower have been telling us for 40 years - so we have decided to keep the brown for good."

Designed by the engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built for the 1889 universal exhibition in Paris and was initially dismissed as an eyesore by many Parisians.

埃菲尔铁塔主管方于本周二称，埃菲尔铁塔将在它120岁生日之际换上棕色“新装”，不过在为期18个月的“换装”过程中，它还将对公众开放。

埃菲尔铁塔粉刷工程将由24名高空作业的油漆工完成，他们将用60吨环保涂料为这个巴黎标志性的建筑穿上“外套”，涂料的颜色“埃菲尔铁塔棕”是专门调配的，能更好地与整个城市的景观相融合。埃菲尔铁塔每七年重新粉刷一次，这是该建筑第19次粉刷。

埃菲尔铁塔高324米，高耸入巴黎天空，是世界最热门旅游景点之一，每年接待游客约600万人。

埃菲尔铁塔曾被粉刷成红棕色、赭褐色、黄色、棕黄色和深红色，直到1968年被主管方确定为目前的颜色。

埃菲尔铁塔管理公司总经理让．贝尔纳布罗斯在接受记者采访时说：“这是最适合埃菲尔铁塔的颜色，是它最优雅的衣装。这是在过去40年间所有热爱埃菲尔铁塔的人告诉我们的，因此我们决定将一直使用这种棕色。”

埃菲尔铁塔由工程师古斯塔夫．埃菲尔设计，当时是为1889年的巴黎世界博览会修建。最初很多巴黎人并不喜欢它。