The Olympics are over. Should the Eiffel Tower keep wearing the rings?

Let’s just come out and say it: The Olympic Games in Paris were a success.

Yes, there was a fair amount of local pre-Olympic grumbling, but that is to be expected. This is France, and complaining is practically a national sport. But if you take any average French person aside, away from friends and family (so as not to bring shame on the nation), they may just admit two things: One, they watched the Olympic Games. And two, they had a ton of fun doing so.

Now, as the Olympic cauldron at the Tuileries Gardens goes dim, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is making a last-ditch effort to keep the Olympic flame alive. She wants to keep the Olympic rings, which were so perfectly placed just above the arch of the Tour Eiffel for the duration of the Games, mounted there indefinitely.

But while those colorful, interlocking rings perched on the wrought-iron lattice of the tower were, admittedly, a photographer’s dream – especially at sunset with the beach volleyball court splayed out before it – Parisians are shouting, “Sacré bleu!”

The mayor and the Games

More than 42,000 people have signed a petition against keeping the rings up. For many, the problem with the idea is likely its source: Ms. Hidalgo.

Despite being well into her second mandate, she is one of the most unpopular politicians in recent memory. Her attempts to ban cars from the city center and her inability to clean up Paris have given her an approval rating of 19%. Ms. Hidalgo made her decision about the rings unilaterally, without public participation, which has ruffled more than a few feathers.

“The Olympics were a great moment, but it’s over now. It’s time to remove the rings,” says Jerome A., who didn’t want to give his last name because he works in a restaurant across the street from the Eiffel Tower. “So many of Anne Hidalgo’s decisions make no sense to me. What can she possibly gain from this?”

Some say there’s an easy explanation. By profiting from Paris’ Olympics success, Ms. Hidalgo could boost her popularity as she looks ahead to the 2026 municipal elections. In that race she could face her archrival Rachida Dati, the nation’s outgoing culture minister, who also just so happens to be the local mayor of the district surrounding the Eiffel Tower.

But before Ms. Hidalgo can make any attempt to bask in Paris’ Olympic glory, she’ll have to get past a few roadblocks.

Teresa Suarez/Reuters

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo delivers a speech commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris, Aug. 25, 2024.

The family of Gustave Eiffel – the man who designed the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 world’s fair – is not having any of this Olympic rings business. In a statement, the family’s organization, the Association of Descendants of Gustave Eiffel, said that keeping the rings in place would go against “the neutrality and meaning acquired over the years by the Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of the city of Paris and even all of France across the world.”

Ms. Hidalgo may not be able to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower for very long at all. Ms. Dati posted on the social platform X that making any changes to a “protected monument” requires an impact assessment. Heritage experts say she’s absolutely right.

Ms. Hidalgo’s “decision goes against national heritage laws, which prohibit any form of publicity on historical monuments,” says Nathalie Heinich, an author and sociologist on cultural heritage at Paris’ National Center for Scientific Research. “She can try to apply political pressure, but this decision will not be accepted easily. Most likely, nothing will come of it.”

From the looks of things, Ms. Hidalgo is putting all hands on deck. On Aug. 31, she told French media that she had written to President Emmanuel Macron about the rings. Time will tell if Mr. Macron, whose approval ratings have also sunk to the depths of the Paris catacombs, will seek to benefit from the city’s Olympic triumph.

The role of the Eiffel Tower

But perhaps this is all too cynical. The French did, ultimately, overwhelmingly love the Olympics, and they’re allowed to change their minds. Why not mark the occasion for eternity?

After all, the Eiffel Tower itself was never meant to last longer than the 1889 world’s fair. The fact that it has become so beloved is somewhat of a miracle. Two years before it was finished, a group of French artists, writers, and architects wrote an open letter condemning the “odious column of bolted metal” that would “without a doubt dishonor Paris.”

Even some tourists are coming around to the idea of keeping the Olympic rings in place.

“I’d like to see the Eiffel Tower in its pure form,” says Janeen Johnson, an Australian tourist who was having lunch on the banks of the river Seine across from the Eiffel Tower on Monday. “But at the same time, we weren’t here for the Olympics, so it is kind of nice to see them and feel part of that moment.”

Ms. Hidalgo has acknowledged that the steel rings, together weighing 30 tons, are too heavy to stay up as they are and will have to be replaced by a lighter version – if any rings are allowed at all. In the end, it may not matter much, especially to people who have traveled thousands of miles to see the “Iron Lady.”

This reporter’s Midwestern cousin, who visited Paris for the first time this week, pursed her lips in disapproval upon hearing the idea of keeping the rings on the Eiffel Tower any longer. But as she stood under the tower’s sparkling lights last night, she was, like so many before her, utterly enchanted by Paris’ iconic monument – rings or no rings.

“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “Ten times better at night. It exceeded my expectations.”