First we had to get there... Seeing as the Metro station nearest the Eiffel Tower was closed we decided to hoof it to the Arc de Triomphe, so crossed the river and headed to the right of the Palais de Chaillot with my trusty street map to hand. It was further than I thought...
If you ever want to test your nerve, or your skill at driving, then there is no better place than the Place Charles-de-Gaulle. This huge roundabout has the silliest rule on Earth.
This is that traffic already on the roundabout has to give way to traffic trying to enter it. So if it is already choked, anyone trying to get off can't because of a never-ending stream of suicidal Citroen jockeys all heading at 50 kilometres an hour for the central lane so they can ogle the Arc de Triomphe. Fran gave a shriek at one point as a bloke in nerdy spectacles zoomed in front of four lanes of moving traffic and cut right to the kerb of the island in the centre. The percentage of Parisian cars with dented bodywork is quite high and this roundabout is the main reason. Well, that and the fact that French people have a thing about having to detour around other people...
Having reached our starting point we set off to walk a straight line, all the way down to The Louvre a distance of somewhere in the region of 4 kilometres. It's a straight line route through quite a bit of history, as we shall see. Actually, you won't see all that much but I'll tell you. There's not a lot along the route to tell you any of the history. The Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, to give it its full title, was built by Napolean along the lines of ancient Roman archways as a monument to his victorius armies. Building was completed in 1836, 20 years after the Battle of Waterloo brought a fin to his ambitions. His remains were housed here for a while. In 1919 someone flew a biplane under the archway. The year after, an eternal flame was lit before the grave of the unknown soldier, who was given a place of honour at the site. A chap was arrested in 1962 for frying eggs over the flame.
First landmark along the road is Fouquet's. Apart from having a name that instantly causes Brits to laugh and mispronounce it, this is one of the more famous restaurants of Paris and if you have some celeb spotting in mind it's as good a place as any. Staying here may cost a bit more than your local Premier Travel Inn, but you can have your own personal butler - ah, Jeeves, can you furnish kitty with a saucer of milk and a plate of froi gras, please... The French call this "the most beautiful avenue in the world". They don't get out much perhaps... It has lots of shops, although admittedly thay have attempted to resist it looking like anytown anywhere by banning the opening of some chain stores.
The avenue has seen some notable parades. The Germans marched down it in 1940 to celebrate the Fall of France and the Free French and American armies marched down it once they had picked it up again in 1944. Every year the French march down it on Bastille Day, July 14th in remembrance of the day the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille prison. As the shops run out and the majority of pedestrians disappear, the avenue none-the-less continues. The rows of trees, set out in straight lines are much as they must have been when Marie Antoinette drove along in her carriage on her way to her music lessons. The roadway however is leading us to a place she must have dreaded and with very good reason.
La Place de la Concorde was known under a slightly more gruesome name during the Revolution. It was La Place de la Guillotine. It was here that the King amongst many of his nobles lost their heads on the guillotine. As the blade was raised above him the king said "May my blood bring happiness to France." He must have suspected that it would not. The avenue comes to an end here and traffic has to veer to the side. The pathway carries on through the old gardens of the Tuileries.
They were laid out in the 16th Century by Catherine de Medici and a carriageway was laid through them by Marie de Medici in 1616.
In this area someone sat on a deckchair for the very first time and also the saxophone was first heard; being played by its inventor, Mr Saxophone. Today the gardens have been restored and it is a pleasant walk of ponds and fountains whilst you can look either way along the old carriageway and see a triumphal archway. We started at one and we approach the end of our walk with the other one.
The Arc de Triomphe du Carousel is smaller than the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile. It was built in 1808 by Napolean to commemorate his victories in Austria. The statue of the horses on the top replaced the original statues of horses which he stole from St Marks in Venice. This was returned after Waterloo to the grateful Italians who forgot to mention that they had stolen it from Constantinople in the first place. Having walked under the archway we are now standing before the glass pyramid of the Louvre. The buildings of the palace of the Louvre, the original royal residence before Louis XIV built himself a plusher place at Versailles, originally plugged a gap in the old city wall.
The Louvre museum famously houses the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. One is a woman without eyebrows, the other a woman without arms. The Louvre and Mona Lisa have had a fresh rush of tourists since the success of Dan Browne's novel The DaVinci Code. By now, my feet are reminding me that not only have we walked further already than on most days but that this is the third day constantly on our feet.
I ignored their moaning enough to head off up towards L'Opera and we piled into a cafe and ordered some lunch before heading back to the hotel for an afternoon's relaxation.
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