I'm not sure if all the new guys know what was going on here but a few years back, they had temporarily installed some strobe lights on the Eiffel tower and they would turn them on at certain times at night. It was such a hit that they decided to install them permanently on the tower and on this day, they were celebrating the completion of that project. That was back in 2003. That's what those numbers on the screen were, a countdown to when they turned on those lights.
Starting around 8pm, they would turn them on every hour at the top of the hour after dard for back then I think was 10 minutes, but I think now is 5 minutes.
One night in December, 2007 on what I think was my second trip to Paris in those times, I decided to go see them. My hotel was only a little over a mile away. I started walking down some streets and I came to a street that was lined with red Christmas lights on each side. About half way down that street there was a gap between 2 buildings and that's when I saw those strobes flashing on the Eiffel tower. That was a spectacular sight between the Christmas lights and the strobe lights. Unfortunately, video or pictures don't do it justice.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t-B...ew?usp=sharing