French comprehension with side by side translation. A conversation with a worker at the famous tower. Includes relevant information about dimensions, number of visitors and a little about the history of the tower. Good resource for teachers and students. Transcribed from a video link.
La tour EiffelEiffel Tower
Il est neuf heures et demie. La tour Eiffel va bientt ouvrir.
Les visiteurs sont dj nombreux attendre.Moi, je suis agent
daccueil, euh, je travaille, euh, je contrle les tickets, euh, je
monte dans lascenseur avec les touristes.Its 9:30 am. The Eiffel
Tower will open soon. There are already many visitors waiting.Im a
greeter, uh, I work, uh, I check tickets and I go up in the
elevator with tourists.
Jos exerce son mtier avec passion depuis prs dun quart de
sicle.Depuis euh le 16 mai 1986. a fait 24 ans. lpoque, euh, il y
avait trois millions de visiteurs, et euh maintenant on est presque
400 millions de visiteurs.Dans une heure il y aura beaucoup de
monde. Oh, je pense vers les deux heures de laprs midi, euh, cest l
o il y a vraiment beaucoup de monde. On arrte beaucoup le troisime
tage.Jos has done his work passionately for nearly a quarter of a
century.Since 16 May 1986. That makes 24 years. At the time, thered
been a total of 3 million visitors, and now were at (an all-time
total of) nearly 400 million visitors.There will be a lot of people
in an hour. Oh, I think around 2 pm is when theres really a lot of
people. We often stop going to the third floor.
Avec sept millions de billets vendus chaque anne, la tour Eiffel
est le monument payant le plus visit au monde.Pour y entrer, il
faut sacquitter de 13 euros 40. La dame de fer engrange 75 millions
deuros par an.
With seven million tickets sold each year, the Eiffel Tower is
the most visited monument with an admission fee in the world.To
enter, you have to pay 13.40 euros. The Iron Lady brings in 75
million euros a year.
La tour Eiffel culmine 324 mtres. Elle comporte trois tages. Une
petite plateforme dobservation est niche au troisime tage. Pour les
visiteurs, lascension sarrte ici.Le premier tage abrite un
restaurant et un bureau de poste.La plateforme dobservation
principale se situe au deuxime niveau. Elle offre un panorama
unique sur la ville.The Eiffel Tower tops out at 324 meters and has
3 floors. Theres a little observation platform on the third floor.
For visitors, the ascent stops here.The first floor has a
restaurant and post office.
The main observation platform is on the second level. It offers
a unique panorama over the city.
Les deux premiers tages sont desservis par trois ascenseurs
installs dans les pilier nord, est et ouest. Celui du pilier sud
est un ascenseur de service.Chaque ascenseur public peut accueillir
92 passagers. Si les cabines ont t rnovs plusieurs fois, le
mcanisme na pas chang depuis 1897.
Gustave Eiffel navait srement pas imagin que ses ascenseurs
transporteraient 7 millions de personnes par an.
The first two floors are served by three elevators installed in
the north, east, and west pillars. The one in the south pillar is a
service elevator.Each public elevator can hold 92 passengers. While
the cabins have been renovated several times, the mecanism hasnt
changed since 1897.Gustave Eiffel surely didnt imagine that his
elevators would transport 7 million people a year.
Cette tour est ne lors de lExposition universelle de 1889 qui
devait commmorer le centenaire de la Rvolution franaise, et pour
cet vnement il fallait une attraction de taille !
This tower was born during the 1889 World Fair which was to
commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution, and for that
event, a major attraction was needed!
Tiens, lui, cest Gustave Eiffel. lpoque il est dj clbre pour ses
constructions mtalliques comme le viaduc de Garabit ou encore le
squelette de fer de la statue de la Libert. Mais la tour, cest mme
pas son ide.Look, thats Gustave Eiffel. At the time, he was already
famous for his metallic constructions like the Garabit Viaduct and
the iron skeleton of the Statue of Liberty. But the tower wasnt his
idea.
Ce nest pas lhomme qui a invent la tour qui porte son nom. a
semble assez paradoxale. En ralit, ce sont deux de ses principaux
ingnieurs qui, tous les deux, en se concertant trois ans avant
louverture de lexposition universelle de 1889, mettent lide de
dessiner un projet un peu fou, une tour de 300 mtres de hauteur,
300 mtres pourquoi ? Cest une dimension symbolique, cest mille
pieds, cest la plus haute tour quon aurait construite lpoque.
The tower is not named for the man who invented it. That seems
fairly paradoxical. In fact, it was two of his main engineers who
worked together for three years before the 1889 World Fair to come
up with the idea to design a kind of crazy project, a 300-meter
tall tower, why 300 meters? Thats a symbolic dimension, its 1,000
feet, its the tallest tower that would be built at that time.
Selon les premiers dessins, la tour ressemble un vulgaire pylne
de pont six tages. Aprs quelques retouches du croquis initial,
Eiffel sent enthousiasme pour le projet qui remporte le concours
pour ldifi[cation...]In the first drawings, the tower looks like an
ugly bridge pylon with six floors. After some alterations to the
original sketch, Eiffel got enthusiastic about the project which
won the contest for the construction
