Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower, made sure he reserved the best view of Paris for himself, so he designed an apartment on the third level of the Eiffel Tower, 1,000 feet (304 meters) up in the air.Â
The apartment measures 1076 square feet (100 square meters), the walls are covered with wallpaper, and there is an open-air balcony surrounding it. It was completely furnished during Eiffel’s time. The apartment had a small kitchen, a bathroom with a sink, a separate area with a toilet, and even a piano. Eiffel also had a small laboratory where he would conduct experiments. Much of the apartment’s space was taken up by an elevator cabin and a stairwell from the floor below.
The elite of Paris were a little envious of Eiffel’s new pad, and he received numerous offers to rent the apartment. Eiffel turned them all down. He reportedly never slept in the apartment, but he did entertain prominent guests, such as Thomas Edison, who visited in 1889 and gave Eiffel one of the first sound-recording devices. Today, anyone can visit the Eiffel apartment as a tourist to see the secret apartment that wasn’t very secret.
But this hasn’t been the only apartment in the Eiffel Tower. In 2016, the vacation rental company, HomeAway, gave four winners a chance to stay in a first-level apartment in the tower during the duration of the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer tournament that went from June 10 to July 10, 2016. Unused conference space on the first level was converted into a makeshift apartment for the promotion.
Sources: Architectural Digest, Tour Eiffel, Conde Nast Traveler
