PARIS — At position 14 in the queue for the Eiffel Tower, our observation began at 08:52 on the morning of the visit. The guest was a religious dignitary of sufficient rank to rearrange human staff. Earlier this month, the company that operates the 330-metre iron structure removed its female employees from duty for the duration of the visit and replaced them with male colleagues. The employees were restored to their posts afterwards. The company has called the removal "unacceptable". The tower's chief has announced a departure.
The substitution was carried out at shift level. Female staff were instructed to be elsewhere. Male colleagues occupied their stations, including the summit information post and the ticket aperture. We logged the transfer of duties at eleven minutes. The reverse transfer, performed once the guest had departed, took nine. The two-minute difference was not explained to us and was not, as far as we could establish, explained to anyone.
"We did not remove anyone," Brigitte Fournier, deputy head of visitor flow, told us beside the elevator bank. "We asked a number of colleagues to be elsewhere for the morning. They were elsewhere. Then they were back. The tower operated throughout." A male colleague who had occupied a vacated station declined to characterise the arrangement. "I was told to stand at post four," he said. "I stood at post four."
On the Champ de Mars below, Martine Lefèvre, a retired schoolteacher exercising a small dog, stated the entire matter with total serenity. "The tower is iron. It has no opinion on who stands on it," she said. "The tower never has an opinion. The counting is done entirely by us."
The operating company issued its finding of "unacceptable" after the visit had concluded and the staff had returned. The chief of the company announced an intention to quit the post. Staff learned of the announcement between shifts. The queue did not slow.
Our tally for the sequence: twelve apologies, one departure announcement, zero opinions from the iron, and a full roster restored before the next scheduled shift. We counted the female staff off the structure at 09:41. We counted them back on before the morning queue formed. The numbers matched. The colony considers the matter handled.
