mini vs MEGA: Fayetteville’s Eiffel Tower
There is an Eiffel Tower sitting in the middle of a shopping center in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Not a Paris-themed attraction. Not an amusement park. A regular shopping and professional center with medical offices, restaurants, stores, a parking lot… and an Eiffel Tower.
Why Is There an Eiffel Tower in a Fayetteville Shopping Center?
Bordeaux Center has been part of Fayetteville since 1964. According to the center’s own history, it started with a grocery store and a five-and-dime, then expanded through the 1970s and 1980s. Those expansions included the tower spaces and the Eiffel Tower replica that is still standing there today.
Ask how tall it actually is, though, and you get nothing but arguments. Depending who you ask, it’s anywhere from 80 feet to nearly 150 feet, and the scale gets quoted just as inconsistently—1:12, 1:6, 1:10, take your pick. Nobody’s got a plaque settling it.
And honestly, that’s plenty weird enough for me.
You don’t buy a ticket. There isn’t a museum underneath it. Nobody hands you a brochure explaining why there’s a French landmark standing beside a parking lot, let alone how tall it is.
It’s just there.
Which is why we stopped.
🗼 About the Bordeaux Tower
Where: Bordeaux Center, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Center established: 1964
Tower: Added as part of the center’s later expansion during the 1970s and 1980s
Height & scale: Elusive. Reported height ranges from 80 to nearly 150 feet, with scale cited anywhere from 1:12 to 1:6. Take your pick.
This Was Already a Very Weird Day
The Eiffel Tower was only one stop in a day that had gotten progressively stranger.
We’d already seen the Blues Brothers doing time in Stedman, stared down a cat piloting a half-horse, half-tractor contraption in St. Pauls, and nearly got mauled by a tiny hitchhiking kitten somewhere between a rainy boat launch and Jacksonville.
Then there was the World’s Largest Frying Pan.
So by the time a miniature Eiffel Tower showed up in a Fayetteville shopping center, it barely even registered as unusual for the day.
Of course there was an Eiffel Tower.
And Then We Found Another One
Fayetteville was the first Eiffel Tower replica we stopped for.
Then came Kings Dominion’s Eiffel Tower in Virginia, which is an entirely different beast at 331 feet tall—a number the park will actually confirm, no arguing required.
And that is how I ended up with another thing to look for while we’re traveling.
mini vs MEGA 🗼
The real Eiffel Tower in Paris is the MEGA.
The scaled replicas we find along the way are the minis. Fayetteville was the first. Kings Dominion came later. Now apparently we’re keeping track.
Visiting the Bordeaux Tower
The tower is at Bordeaux Center, near the intersection of Owen Drive and Village Drive in Fayetteville.
📍 Bordeaux Center
1740-A Owen Drive
Fayetteville, NC 28304
Parking: Free on-site parking is available throughout the center.
What to expect: This is an active shopping, medical, and professional complex, not a dedicated roadside-attraction property. Park normally, watch for traffic, and don’t block the businesses while you’re taking pictures.
Cost: Nothing. You are looking at a tower in a parking lot. 😂
And yes, look both ways before you Eiffel.