Eiffel Tower Goes GREEN?

Someone has a lofty horticultural vision for Paris!

It was announced recently that there are plans to cover the Eiffel Tower in 600,000 plants for 2012.  Can you imagine?  The $96 million plan is the work of Ginger (an engineering group) Vinci (a construction company) and architect Claude Bucher, who say they have built a prototype several meters high.

The plants would be attached to the tower in bags and would be irrigated by a series of watering tubes.  The plan calls to allow the plants to grow until being removed in 2016.

French newspaper Le Figaro is calling the carbon-neutral project the "lungs of Paris." Other newspapers referred to it as the "largest tree."

The City of Paris immediately denied the project will happen.  They said they get "crazy" ideas all the time.  So we won't see a "living" Eiffel Tower, but it is an interesting idea.

Check out this link to Chemicallygreen.com which shows examples of fantastic "living" walls and buildings.  By the way, it's a pretty cool GREEN website definitely worth a look.

If you are planning a visit to Paris, visit the official Eiffel Tower website  for hours, buying tickets ahead of time, making dinner reservations, or learning more about Paris' most famous landmark. They also have a section for kids, which for a parent is a great resource.

Here we are at the tower in 2010.  The views really are breathtaking.