The Anti-Christ

It will be more efficient but less romantic to visit the Eiffel Tower after this summer.

The days when penniless lovers could stroll hand in hand beneath its 1,063ft of steel then go up it on a giddy whim are gone for good.

The Paris authorities are switching 80% of ticket sales to the internet and raising the price of on-the-spot tickets from about £15 to £22.

“It’s still below the average price of monuments worldwide, like the Empire State Building,” said Jean-François Martins, the deputy mayor of Paris, who is in charge of tourism in the city.

Visitors will step within a bulletproof glass wall around the tower’s four pillars, watched by surveillance cameras.

Eiffel Tower will be surrounded by a bulletproof glass wall in a bid to protect the tourist attraction from threats https://t.co/ZWY2g0m0p4 pic.twitter.com/N5zamSZpVN

— The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) June 25, 2017