The France - Ecuador connection

Today is Bastille Day, truly an important day in History and of course in France. Though separate by a great distance there are amazingly some connections between France and Ecuador. Most of these ties are tenous at best. We don't know each other well. We know France is in Europe and that Paris is the capital city but that's all. Do they know more about us than we do about them? Probably not, but History shows us that used to be different in the past. This is so true that there are places in Quito with French names (La Condamine is certainly not a Spanish name). What happened? I can't tell but if we look hard we will find proofs that the French used to have a more active interest in our country than they do now, so to speak. And here is my own testimony: somewhere in Guayas, the province I live in, there is this small city called Vinces. A quiet place most of the time and not very different from the many other little towns and villages that populate the Ecuadorian countryside. Only this one has something else, a little monument built to be the small mirror image of a bigger construction that stands right in the heart of Paris. This "minor" Eiffel tower makes all the difference and because of it Vinces is called París Chiquito (Little Paris). I was there in 2010 and looked for the proverbial informational plaque but there was none. So the little tower stands there, an undefeated giant in a town  where no building has more than three or four stories, a curiosity, a piece of French culture that quietly welcomes visitors without saying much about itself. Who built it? Why? Sure there is a good explanation but, who wants to know? Sometimes it's better not to know.