The Grand Ballon rises into the Paris sky

Only a few weeks after the forced dismantlement of the Grande Roue de Paris, the Ferris Wheel that had become a landmark of the French capital the past two years, Paris has a new monument that could very well challenge the Eiffel Tower as the city's most sought after tourist attraction.

The new landmark takes the form of the Grand Ballon, a hot-air balloon that several times per day takes travelers up 150 meters into the sky of Paris. And as it's located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, voyagers in the balloon get to see an exceptional view of the French capital that they're not able to get anywhere else.

True, at 150 meters, the balloon rises only one-half the full height of the Eiffel Tower (which stands officially at 320 meters) but the view is different, and just rising up the full distance offers the tourist a more thrilling experience than rising up 180 meters to the highest level accessible to tourists on the Eiffel Tower.

The idea behind the balloon -- which is permanently fixed to the ground by a heavy-duty cable -- came from Aero-Paris, which wanted to provide tourists with an alternative view of Paris. It was something Parisians were able to do only a century earlier when, before construction of the Eiffel Tower in 1889, going for a ride in the Grand Ballon, which back then was not fixed to the ground, became a favorite Sunday afternoon pastime of the capital city's elite.

In 1858, the photographer Nadar lost no time in making use of the balloon of his day to take the first aerial pictures of Paris, indeed the first aerial views taken anywhere from a balloon.

Aero-Paris has also been allowed by the City of Paris, which licenses its activities, to sell advertising space on the balloon, but to do so in a non-garish fashion, which means, for the moment, that only one advertiser at a time can make use of the Grand Ballon as one of the world's most original billboards.

At present, it's quite appropriately Eutelsat, the international satellite operator, that's chosen to deck the Grand Ballon with its colors.

In large part because of the advertising subsidy received from Eutelsat, the cost of going up in the Grand Ballon is far from being prohibitive. Going up the 150 meters, which costs 10 euros (US$9), is only slightly more than the cost of taking the elevator up the Eiffel Tower, where a ride to the summit will cost you 9.91 euros ($8.90).

Children get to go up free of charge on the Grand Ballon when they can prove they live in Paris and are under 12, otherwise a ride for them costs all of 5 euros ($4.50). (Paul R. Michaud)