March 31, 2009 is the 120th birthday of one of the worlds best known icons, the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was originally built for the 1889 Universal Exposition celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution. Gustav Eiffel's design was selected by the World's Fair committee for it's "beautiful, transparent structure" and also because it was the least expensive submission. It took 2 years, 2 months and 5 days to build the tower and was finished 7 days before the expo opened. The tower was to be torn down after 20 years but was saved when it was turned into a radio tower and the height was perfect for transmission.
More interesting facts of the Eiffel Tower
She is 1,063 feet tall with 1,665 steps
It takes 50 gallons of paint every 7 years to paint the Eiffel tower and it takes 15 months to paint it. The use 3 shades of brown with the darkest at the bottom and the lightest at the top
20,000 light bulbs on the Eiffel Tower light it up the first 10 minutes of every hour each evening.
The Eiffel Tower is the most popular paid admission attraction in the world
I can't imagine a life without this beautiful lady
So we must make something special for this big birthday and had I honestly knew about it before the 30th I would have made an Eiffel Tower cake, but a lovely tart will do instead. A tomato & Camembert tart is light and lovely and perfect with a mixed green salad.
before it went into the oven, and below right after coming out
perfect on some Eiffel Tower plates and it tasted fantastic...