I was interested in the phrase “If you believe that, I’ve got an Eiffel Tower I want to sell you,” which appeared in Maureen Dowd’s column, titled “The Libertine on the Loose” in New York Times (May 1st).
The article seems to be mocking the former IMF President, Strauss-Kahn for his appearance in the birthday party of Julien Dray, France Socialist Party deputy together with a troop of celebrities. The article wraps up with the following lines:
“According to Le Figaro, a stripper-hooker named Jade testified that “I did not go and sleep with Dominique Strauss-Kahn simply for pleasure. First of all, he is old. He is stout.”
The 63-year-old insisted that the “pretty new things” were motivated merely by lust for him. And, if you believe that, I’ve got an Eiffel Tower I want to sell you."
In Japan, we have popular sayings such as “If your story is true, I’ll show my somersault dive from the top of the Mt. Fuji before your eyes,” and “(Your story is laughable to) 'make a water in the kettle boil on my belly button'” when we don’t believe what the other party is saying to you.
Is Dowd’s “(If) I’ve got something (like Eiffel Tower or the Empire State), I want to sell you,” a popular or set phrase like our “somersault dive from the top of Mt. Fuji” and “make a kettle of water boil on my naval.”?
Associated question on her remark:
What does "lust" of "motivated merely by lust for him" mean?
Best Answer
This is a way of saying, "if you believe that, you are gullible enough to believe most anything" (and the speaker should therefore capitalize by making themselves lots of money off of you). Basically, you are so gullible that you are vulnerable out in public. The idea here is that somebody could trick (scam) you by selling something they don't own. Generally something that only a very gullible person would fall for.
Typically (in the USA at least) its either "a bridge", or "The Brooklyn Bridge". However, any large landmark the speaker obviously doesn't own would do as a stand-in.
The landmark in question is often modified to match the situation a bit, just to be cute. In this case, the person in question is French, so the one French landmark a typcial New York Times reader would know about (the Eiffel Tower) was used.