The Eiffel Tower held its last light against a sky sliding from blue into gold, its ironwork lit gold from base to spire, a searchlight sweeping past the tip. We had spread out on the lawn of the Champ de Mars that evening with the rest of the crowd, in no rush, watching the color drain out of the sky in slow stages while we waited for the tower to switch over from daylight to its evening lights. The show started all at once at the hour, the whole structure catching light from bottom to top, and for a few minutes the tower and the last of the blue sky held together in the frame before the dark took over.
