Eurographics - Paris La Tour Eiffel 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

The Eiffel Tower lit gold at sunset, seen across the Seine with the river boats moored below it. The tower is an iron lattice, which makes it the most distinctive set of pieces in any box it appears in.

What you are looking at

The tower stands slightly left of centre, floodlit to a warm amber against a sky that runs from deep blue at the top left, through lilac and rose, to a hard orange band low on the right where the sun has just gone. Its four legs and the two open arches between them are fully visible, which is the view you only get from across the water.

Along the near bank, the long glass-roofed river cruise boats are moored end to end, picked out in red and white. Trees line the quay, a stone bridge crosses on the right, and the Seine fills the bottom of the frame, catching the tower's light as a broken gold reflection. It was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch to the World's Fair, and was meant to come down after twenty years.

What it is like to build

The lattice is unmistakable and you should take it first. Nothing else in the picture is made of thousands of thin gold girders on open sky. Those pieces separate themselves out of the box on sight.

Then place them by density, not by pattern. This is the part people get wrong. The ironwork looks like it repeats, and to a point it does, but the girders are much finer and closer together near the top and coarser near the legs, and the curve of the arches is unique. Sort the lattice pieces from finest to coarsest before placing any and they fall into place quickly.

The boats and the quay along the bottom are the next easiest, being small hard-edged objects in strong colours.

The sky is the large quiet region. It is a clean gradient with some soft cloud, so sort it in horizontal strips by hue, blue at the top through pink to orange, and work down. The river below repeats the same colours a shade darker and slightly broken up, so keep the two apart or they will mix.

Why the EuroGraphics build matters

EuroGraphics are Canadian, based in Montreal, printing on recycled board with vegetable-based inks over a blue-cored board, which is why the piece has that distinctive edge and a firm fit. On a smooth gradient sky, the fit is the only confirmation available.

Specifications

A little context

Paris is one of the two or three most published cities in the whole category and most of the images are of this one structure, which raises a fair question about why you would buy another. The answer is the viewpoint: a photograph taken from underneath is mostly abstract ironwork, and a photograph taken from far away loses the detail. This one is from across the river, which is the distance at which the tower still reads as a building. More at Cities & Landmarks.

Stock is real and it is in Sydney. Free shipping Australia wide over $150, and free same-day delivery inside 6 km of North Bondi with no minimum.

Built it already? Use the Questions section below and tell us how you found it. Which part fought you, how long it took, and whether you would send someone else to it. We answer every one.