Eiffel Tower to be home for the night for lucky contest winners
PARIS, France -- Want to go to Paris? Want to see the Eiffel Tower? Want to sleep there, looking out at a view that you'll never forget?
Four lucky winners will do just that, as part of a contest by vacation rental company HomeAway – a sponsor of the Euro 2016 soccer event that kicked off Friday – in which the firm inaugurated its newest Parisian vacation flat: on top of the Eiffel Tower.
"It's a completely crazy idea," said Mariano Dima, chief marketing officer for HomeAway.
"We didn't even think that it was actually possible but we took the challenge," he added, referring to rising to the test to be able to offer a beautiful home albeit in an iconic setting. "Nobody thought that this would actually happen. You can really sleep here."
The stylish 2,000 square-foot, two bedroom apartment is accessible through the tower's south elevator. It is designed to last for just one month, until the end of the soccer tournament.
To win the privilege to spend one night in the French capital's most emblematic monument, over 150,000 entered a contest asking them to imagine what they would do if the HomeAway Eiffel Tower apartment was theirs for the night.
“I would look at the stars in my children’s eyes and we could enjoy this unforgettable moment with the whole family.” wrote French winner Magali, a mother of three, according to HomeAway's list.
“My two young sons are autistic and are both obsessed with lights and the tower itself so I'd spend the night watching them in awe,” said another winner, Michelle from Essex in the U.K.
On the 4th of July, Scott, a U.S. citizen from Arizona is planning to hold a “reunion of five generations: my mom, my daughter, me, my granddaughter and now my great-granddaughter,” he wrote, all coming together in Paris for the first time.
Phoenix man wins a night in the Eiffel Tower
The space, normally a conference hall rented for seminars or special events was transformed into a classical style apartment for the contest in what the architect in charge of the project called, "unique."
"You don't make a flat on the Eiffel Tower every day," said Benoit Leleu. It's never been done before."
He said the views were the starting point for the design, which in turn inspired the end result.
"I wanted a very sober apartment with pure lines and with just the view of Paris on a whole wall panel," he said, explaining the wall is part of a bedroom and living room.
Only the bathroom had to be "annexed," said Leleu: They are located "two stories up a bit of a labyrinth ... but we're in the Eiffel Tower."
Time constraints were a major hurdle to the project as HomeAway had a 48-hour window to actually build the flat.
"We worked for 48 hours non-stop," said Leleu. "We started Tuesday at midnight and finished Thursday at 6 p.m."
The project's main constraint besides time was making do with a small size and very slow elevator to carry the materials.
"We had a constraint of time, of accessibility, of security, of fire... and the dimension of the elevator," said Leleu. "Everything was impacted by this elevator."
In daytime, the flat will host soccer fans who want to watch the matches on big TV screens and for other activities. Dima said he expected about 15,000 to make use of the apartment for this purpose.
Because HomeAway contest participants overwhelmingly replied with words of love and romance, the vacation rental online company decided to hold a "Love party" on July 2.
"It's a day of love where people come and declare whatever type of love (they have)," said Kate Lowery, spokesperson for HomeAway, "People might want to get engaged to their fiancé, renew their vows, tell their mother how much she means to them."
