An enormous flag with odd inscriptions was raised on the Eiffel Tower today. Just as the sun was starting to rise over Paris at 5:15am, a giant flag was being hoisted up the world famous tower. At 12:41pm, the flag was unfurled, revealing an unusual mix of symbols, letters, and numbers.
What could it mean? Who is behind this? How long will this flag fly?
The large size of the flag made the Eiffel Tower look like a flag pole. I estimate this flag to be 220 feet x 180 feet. That’s close to the size of a football field. It took six hours to get the flag from the ground to the top.
I posted a video on Twitter of a timelapse. From the flag being raised to it flying.
Could someone really pull off a prank of this enormous size?
The flag remained flying until 4:10pm, when it was taken down. Thus, the flag flew for over three hours. At first, one would think if you go to the trouble of hoisting a flag of this size, that you’d keep it up for at least a few days. Perhaps in celebration of something. But since it was taken down somewhat quickly. This has got to be a prank right?
Searching around the internet, I could not find anything in the news. Twitter had a handful of people wondering what was happening to the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower flag is a test for the Olympics!!!
Then I found this tweet by by Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 20224 Organizing Committee for the Olympic & Paralympic Games.
The tweet has a video of the flag attached to the Eiffel Tower. Tony is standing at the base talking about the flag. If anyone can translate the French being spoken in this video, that would be greatly appreciated.
Now it makes sense that they would keep the flag up for about three hours. They needed to test the engineering of the flag to see if could remain attached and flying. This is not a very long time, because it’s a test. But it’s not just like 15 minutes.
This makes me look forward to the 2024 Olympics in Paris all the more. What flag will they fly from the Eiffel Tower? What will the flag say? Certainly it won’t be an estoteric flag like this with all the hieroglyphics.
How did I come across this?
Every morning I check the Eiffel Tower webcam. I love watching how the sky changes color. Or what types of clouds there are. Occasionally the buildings in the foreground have a window washing crane. Oftentimes I’ll photoshop fun things into the webcam image, like a tightrope walker on a jetstream.
