“Even with a disability, you can accomplish great things,” declares Sylvain Bouchard in an interview with Courriez du Pays-de-Retz. The 46-year-old man, in a wheelchair, teamed up with Frédéric Malmezac, a 38-year-old carpenter, for a slightly crazy project on the eve of the Paris Olympic Games: building a 16-meter-high replica of the tower. Eiffel from recycled wood. The building now sits in the countryside of La Chevrolière, in Loire-Atlantique, a few kilometers south of Nantes.
“When Frédéric asked me, I immediately joined the project,” says Sylvain Bouchard, in an interview with Presse Océan. For the forty-year-old, who practiced disabled sports, the Olympics are an opportunity not to be missed. The two friends living in Loire-Atlantique built this structure using 825 pieces of wood assembled with 5,400 screws. A project built around several ambitions: the revaluation of materials, the transmission of know-how and the inclusion of people with disabilities. “The project was to build a wooden replica of the Eiffel Tower using as much recycling as possible. With materials that have to be thrown away, we can build great things,” declared Frédéric Malmezac.
Also read “Rest assured, you can see clearly”: a second Eiffel Tower is being established in Paris
Before being able to offer the building for public or private events – notably the stage cities of the Olympic Games – it was necessary to go through the certification box. Sylvain Bouchard hopes “that it will be exhibited in an athletes’ village or even at the foot of the Eiffel Tower”. In total, the project cost €6,960. A price which exceeds the financial limits set in advance by Sylvain and Frédéric who had to open an online prize pool.
Before obtaining possible authorization to exhibit their miniature Eiffel Tower near the Olympic sites, the two friends are looking for a 40 m² plot of land in Paris to install their replica.
