It’s been more than four years since Jean-Claude Fassler, 74 and a former metalworker, made a 30-meter-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower, which is 300 meters tall, reports France 3.
In the Haut-Rhin, he decided to occupy his retirement in this way. A way also to spend time with two of his grandchildren who help him in his task.
“I couldn’t see myself spending my retirement walking my dog or gardening! It’s not in my temperament, ”confesses the septuagenarian to the television channel.
Many more years of work
The project, which began in November 2017, will not be finished for several years, the retiree also said. “If, at the start, I had known that it was so difficult, I would not have embarked on it! “, he confesses.
But for his grandson Kilian, the bulk of the work has already been done. He estimates that they will be finished within “two or three years”.
A longtime passion
The retiree therefore embarked on this adventure above all out of passion. In the early 1990s, Jean-Claude Fassler had indeed received the original plans for the Eiffel Tower for Christmas: “For ten or fifteen years, I just looked at them. Then I was inspired by it to start my tower. But I still lack data, concerning the angles for example”, he says.
The former metalworker leaves nothing to chance: his replica, ten times lower than the original monument, must be a perfect copy on a 1/10th scale. He even started painting her red, the Iron Lady’s first color.
For this Alsatian, the making of this piece is a way of paying homage to another Alsatian: Maurice Koechlin, the engineer to whom we owe the structure of the real Eiffel Tower.
And then, Jean-Claude Fassler has a dream: to see his tower alongside his big sister for the 2024 Olympic Games. His work still has to be finished in time.