Visitor numbers

Together with a marketing campaign, the refurbishment helped to more than double visitor numbers - from 3 million in 1979 to 6.2 million last year.

In 1999, the tower played host to its 200 millionth customer.

But since then, visitor numbers have bobbed about the six-million mark, and revenues, although going up slightly in recent years, have yet to get much beyond 50m euros (£36m; $57m).

The tower, it seems, may have reached capacity; its super-fast lifts cannot get any faster, and regulations and safety limit visitors to 30,000 people on any one day.

Money is being poured into making the tower more glamorous: after an outcry when millennium-year lighting was taken down in 2001, the company spent 5m euros on a new 20,000-bulb display in late April.

There is one snag for Mr Marvillet, however. At the end of 2005, SNTE's 25-year contract to run the tower finally comes to an end. "We hope it's going to be renewed, but nothing is certain," he said.