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 This
is a view of the avenue des Champs - Elysees , considered
by many to be the most famous avenue in the world. This
picture shows the avenue just before midnight on a Saturday,
looking northwest from the Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées
towards the Arc de Triomphe , which is at the other end
of the avenue. The picture was taken from the median of
the crosswalk at the midpoint of the avenue, where there
is a transition from commercial properties to parkland.
The area around the Champs - Elysees was
originally marshland and fields, nearly four hundred years
ago. The architect Le Nôtre built the predecessor
of the current avenue about a hundred years later, and it
came to be rather imaginatively called the Elysian Fields
(that's what Champs Élysées means in French).
Today this real estate is some of the most expensive in
the world. Whoever said that swampland is a poor investment?
I took this photograph with cars streaking
past in both directions. The median is marked by lines on
the pavement and an occasional small post, but that's about
it. Since I laugh at danger (well, almost) when obtaining
pictures with which to entertain visitors to my Web site,
I ignored this and snapped away. In fact, believe it or
not, I actually managed to set up a tripod to take this
shot (I was shooting at ISO 80, so that was the only way
to get a shot that wasn't completely blurred). Anyway, motorcycles
are the biggest hazard here, since they drive on the wrong
side of the road most of the time; fortunately, there weren't
too many around during the few minutes I needed to take
my pictures.
The odd coloring in the photograph is pretty
much the way it actually looks; the street lamps are high-pressure
sodium vapor, like most street lamps these days, and so
they cast a kind of orange-yellow light on everything. The
Arc de Triomphe is lit with the same kind of lights.
There are always people and cars on this
street. I took the photograph at 11:37 PM, but the avenue
would have looked very much the same at three o'clock in
the morning. I also have a photograph of the Champs-Élysées
in daylight from this same point (approximately), another
daylight picture from the top of the avenue, a picure of
one of the broad sidewalks on the avenue, and even a photo
taken from the top of the Arc de Triomphe if you're interested.
 The
avenue des Champs - Elysees is equipped
with very broad sidewalks on either side to accommodate
the huge crowds of pedestrians that frequent the avenue
day and night. Not too many years ago, about half of this
space was taking up by narrow alleys reserved for parking,
but several years ago all the alleys were replaced by underground
parking garages, and the sidewalks were entirely repaved
in granite.
This photograph was taken in the mid-afternoon
on a summer day, but there are people on the avenue at all
times of the day and night, all year long.
This is the Arc de Triomphe, a 16-story
war monument conceived by Napoléon, designed by architect
Jean-François Chalgrin, and built at the top of the
avenue des Champs-Élysées. It was constructed
between 1810 and 1836 (there were a number of long delays).
 It
is possible to reach the roof of the monument by climbing
nearly three hundred steps, and the view is excellent. I
haven't been up there very often, but I do have some nice
photos of several Paris streets taken from the top of the
arch, including a photo of the avenues leading to La Défense,
a photo of the Avenue Foch, and a photo of the ever-popular
Champs-Élysées.
The arch is surrounded by a huge vehicular
roundabout. Some tourists foolishly try to cross the roundabout
in front of hundreds of cars in order to get to the monument.
The seasoned habitués of the city know that there
is an underground pedestrian walkway on the northern side
of the Champs-Élysées that provides safe access
to the monument.
This monument, like so many others, is intended
to glorify war and those who died waging it. Beneath the
arch lies the tombe du soldat inconnu (“tomb of the
unknown soldier”), and a flame of remembrance burns
above the tomb (it is symbolically rekindled daily at 6:30
PM in a small ceremony). There are regular military ceremonies
at this location to commemorate the many and varied massacres
that have colored French and world history.
The site on which the monument stands is
called the place Charles de Gaulle; it used to be called
the place de l’Étoile, because of the multicolored
star built into the pavement of the roundabout (look closely
at the pavement, and you’ll see the alternating gray
and red colors of the star), and it is still referred to
casually by this name.
On the lower left in the photograph, you
can see the Eiffel Tower, which is about 1.7 km away; it
looks a bit sunken because it is at a much lower elevation
than the Arch.
the Flame of Remembrance
that burns at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
beneath the Arc de Triomphe . Unlike an “eternal”
flame, this flame is rekindled each day in a brief ceremony
at 6:30 PM. Also, sometimes drunken tourists urinate on it,
extinguishing it until someone can relight it. The bouquets
of flowers, offered by various veterans' organizations for
the most part, are fresh and regularly replenished with new
flowers by these organizations.
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe.
It is a monument to all the soldiers slaughtered in various
wars, particularly World War I, for anyone who is counting.
The identity of the actual soldier entombed here is not known;
even if it were, I doubt that the fancy tomb would be much
consolation to the family that never saw him again, the wife
or girlfriend he left behind and alone, or the children he
never had. But it’s a very pretty tomb, with all that
smooth, cold granite and brass, isn’t it?
Anyway, the tomb is often covered by flowers
donated by organizations of veterans and the like. Despite
all the flowers, the soldier is still dead, and still unknown.
I always end up shaking my head when I see things like this.
A flame of remembrance burns over the tomb, too.
The place de la Concorde is one of the largest
open vehicular and pedestrian plazas in the world. Traffic
swirls continuously around a central pedestrian area marked
by two large fountains (one of which is seen here) and an
ancient Egyptian obelisk, a 3300-year-old artifact from
Luxor, donated by the Viceroy of Egypt to France in 1829.
It‘s difficult to get an overall view
of this very large plaza. In this photo, you are looking
at the fountain at the southern end of the place, the Fontaine
des Mers, which has recently been completely restored; a
similarly restored fountain, the Fontaine des Fleuves, adorns
the northern end. The Obelisk is not visible in this image
but is off to the right. The large building at the right
in the background is the Hôtel Crillon and the headquarters
of the French Navy; the building with a rounded roof to
the left of it is the American Embassy. Further off to the
right and outside the frame is the rue Royale, which leads
to the Madeleine and features Maxim‘s restaurant.
Just left of center, but behind the bus, is the bottom of
the avenue des Champs-Élysées. Further off
to the left, and not visible here, is the Seine River and,
several kilometres away, the Eiffel Tower. Way off to the
right, and again not visible here, are the rue de Rivoli
and the Tuileries Gardens.
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