The Eiffel Tower Creeps Back Into My Life

Backpacks Aren't Chic Watching François Truffaut’s film, “Les Quatre Cents Coups” from 1959 I was taken back to Paris. The most nostalgic moment of the whole film for me was the opening clips while the credits were rolling. It was as if someone was gazing up at the sky while being driven through the city on the back of a Vespa. The camera lens, or the eye, follows the unmoving tip of the Eiffel tower as the scooter winds through the streets getting closer to the actual architectural marvel. This moment is perhaps the only point in the film where the director has deliberately played into the “eroticized gaze of the traveler,” as Tara Kolton puts it. Truffaut uses the excitement and romance evoked in tourists, or foreigners, to give the film an appealing jump start. It worked.

No matter how hard I try, the Eiffel Tower pops into mind when I think of Paris. However, for the most part, this is not what Parisians would like me to think of. I’m very aware of the fact that most Parisians detest the Eiffel Tower, think that is a phallic symbol of modernity, see it as defacing the beautiful city, and view the light shows as obnoxious and an annoyance. I first learned of this view point when I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time with a French boyfriend of mine. He totally popped my bubble and I ended up not even wanting to get off of the Vespa, much less climb it as I had planned.

I still cannot believe the Eiffel Tower is Paris’s Time Square but I guess it makes some sense. However, when I saw only the tip of it in the film, just over the tops of the beautiful 17th and 18th century buildings, I began to love the clash of the two styles. Continuing to watch the film, the main character, the little boy, Antoine, runs around the city doing mischievous things. Besides the Eiffel Tower, the one other thing that made me incredibly nostalgic was seeing Antoine and his peers run to and from class with their little briefcases—in Paris, the kids don’t have backpacks. Having a hump on your back is not chic, not Parisian.