Eiffel Tower tree plans are denied

PARIS city officials have strongly denied reports that they are planning to cover the Eiffel Tower with 600,000 plants.

Le Figaro suggested this week that, from next June, the tower would be made to look like a giant tree, with baskets of shrubbery attached to it from top to bottom, plus an elaborate irrigation system, at a cost of €72m.

The Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Sete), which runs the tower on behalf of the Mairie de Paris, said the Figaro article was the first it had heard about the project.

"There is no such plan being prepared. The information in the Figaro has no basis in reality," the group said in a statement.

However, Sete president Jean-Bernard Bros, who is in charge of tourism for the Mairie de Paris, told Europe 1 he had received the proposal from an engineering group, Ginger, but that it "had not been looked at".

Mr Bros wrote on Twitter: "Neither the Eiffel Tower nor the Mairie de Paris are involved in any way with a plan to add vegetation to the monument."

He added: "People suggest new ideas for the Eiffel Tower to me every day. The tower prompts all sorts of fantasy ideas."

Mr Bros said the group's priority was a €25m facelift for the tower, already announced, which includes plans for a glass floor on the first storey.

The vegetation proposal aimed to symbolise France's wish to be seen as a leader in the field of eco-friendly living, and would have been in place until 2016.

Ginger said the €72m budget would come from private funding and "Parisians will not have pay anything towards it".