A pair of American tourists who visited the Eiffel Tower late Sunday night drank too much and fell asleep there without completing their descent from the Parisian landmark.
The tower’s opening was delayed by an hour on Monday to give firefighters time to extricate the two men.
The two tipsy travelers, who French authorities did not identify, bought entry tickets to the iconic tower at 10:40 p.m. local time, according to the French news agency Agence France-Presse.
When the time came for them to leave, however, they were drunk — so much so that they hopped a security barrier and settled in for a snooze in an area between the tower’s second and third levels normally closed to the public.
The two men were taken to a Paris police station for questioning. The Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, the company that operates the Eiffel Tower, intends to press unspecified criminal charges against the two tourists.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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