From the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde
3 Rue de Tilsitt and Qatar Embassy
7 Café Culture: Fouquet’s and Ladurée
9 French Shopping: Arcades Mall, Sephora, Guerlain
12 Rond-Point
Don’t leave Paris without a stroll along Avenue des Champs-Elysées (shahnz ay-lee-zay). This is Paris at its most Parisian: monumental sidewalks, stylish shops, elegant cafés, glimmering showrooms, and proud Parisians on parade. The whole world seems to gather here to strut along the boulevard. It’s a great walk by day, and even better at night, allowing you to tap into the city’s global scene. On the first Sunday of the month, it’s delightfully traffic-free.
Length of This Walk: This two-mile, slightly downhill walk takes three hours at a relaxed pace (including a one-hour visit to the Arc de Triomphe). Métro stops are located every few blocks along the Champs-Elysées. With less time, end the walk at Rond-Point (Mo: Franklin D. Roosevelt).
Getting There: To reach the Arc de Triomphe at Place Charles de Gaulle, take the Métro to Charles de Gaulle-Etoile. Follow Sortie #1 and Champs-Elysées/Arc de Triomphe signs, which deposit you right at the entry to the pedestrian tunnel under all the traffic to the arch itself. From Rue Cler and the Montparnasse area, ride bus #92 to the Charles de Gaulle-Etoile stop (see the map on here for stop locations).
Arc de Triomphe: Free to view exterior; 284 steps to rooftop—€13, timed-entry tickets available online, free for those under 18, free on first Sun of month Nov-March, covered by Museum Pass (reservation not necessary); daily 10:00-23:00, Oct-March until 22:30, last entry 45 minutes before closing; +33 1 55 37 73 77, www.paris-arc-de-triomphe.fr. With a timed-entry ticket or Museum Pass, you’ll bypass two slow-moving lines: the underground ticket line and the line for access to the stairs up the Arc (look for the Priority Access sign just after emerging from the tunnel).
The elevator is only for people with disabilities and runs only to the museum level, not to the top, which requires a 47-step climb (they are less strict for the elevator down). The Arc is quieter first thing and after 17:00—come for sunset.
Grand Palais: This exhibition venue is closed for renovation until at least 2025.
Petit Palais: Free, Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, Fri until 21:00 for special exhibits (fee), closed Mon, lovely café.
WCs: A small, often-crowded WC is near the top of the Arc de Triomphe. You’ll find others at the Arcades des Champs-Elysées, Petit Palais (no lines), Hôtel Crillon, Tuileries Garden (end of the walk), and at most bigger stores along the route.
Starring: Grand boulevards, grander shops, and grandiose monuments.
• Start at the top of the Champs-Elysées and view the Arc from the right side of the boulevard before crossing to it. There’s just one pedestrian tunnel (near the Métro entrance, to the right of the Arc as you face it).
Construction of the 165-foot-high arch began in 1809 to honor Napoleon’s soldiers, who, despite being vastly outnumbered by the Austrians, scored a remarkable victory at the Battle of Austerlitz. Patterned after the ceremonial arches of ancient Roman conquerors (but more than twice the size), it celebrates Napoleon as emperor of a “New Rome.” On the arch’s massive left pillar, a relief sculpture shows a toga-clad Napoleon posing confidently, while an awestruck Paris—crowned by her city walls—kneels at his imperial feet. Napoleon died before the Arc’s completion, but it was finished in time for his 1840 funeral procession to pass underneath, carrying his remains (19 years dead) from exile in St. Helena to Paris.
On the right pillar is the Arc’s most famous relief, La Marseillaise (Le Départ des Volontaires de 1792, by François Rude). Lady Liberty—looking like an ugly reincarnation of Joan of Arc—screams, “Freedom is this way!” and points the direction with a sword. The soldiers beneath her are tired, naked, and stumbling, but she rallies them to carry on the fight against oppression.
• Now approach the Arc. Take the underground pedestrian walkway—don’t even think about crossing the busy roundabout at street level.
In the tunnel, you’ll come to the ticket line for the tower climb, which you can bypass if you have a timed-entry ticket or Museum Pass. Before leaving the tunnel, notice the long photo on the wall showing the nighttime view circa 1995 from the top of the arch. It shows 360 degrees: Count the 12 avenues.
If you’re climbing to the top, exit the tunnel to find the security line (Museum Pass and ticket holders can use the Priority Access line). If lines are short, start with the top of the arch and walk around the base later (if climbing now, skip ahead to the next section). It’s worthwhile to explore the base of the arch even if you don’t climb it. There’s no cost to wander around.
To explore the base, walk around the arch to reach its center and stand directly beneath it on the faded eagle. The Arc de Triomphe is dedicated to the glory of all French armies. You’re surrounded by the lists of French victories since the Revolution—19th century on the arch’s taller columns, 20th century in the pavement. On the shorter columns you’ll see lists of generals (with a line under the names of those who died in battle). Find the flower-lined Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (from World War I). Every day at 18:30 since just after World War I, the flame has been rekindled and new flowers set in place.
Like its Roman ancestors, this arch has served as a parade gateway for triumphal armies (French or foe) and important ceremonies. From 1940 to 1944, a large swastika flew from here as Nazis goose-stepped down the Champs-Elysées. In August 1944 General Charles de Gaulle led Allied troops under this arch as they celebrated liberation. Today, national parades start and end here with one minute of silence.
Ascend the Arc via the 284 steps inside the north pillar. Catch your breath two-thirds of the way up in the small exhibition area (WC also on this mezzanine level). It hosts ho-hum exhibits about the arch and, of course, there’s a gift shop.
From the top you have an eye-popping view of tout Paris. You’re gazing at the home of 12 million people in greater Paris. (The city center has about 2.4 million residents and covers 40 square miles—a quarter the size of Denver with about four times the population.) The taller buildings and skyscrapers you see are outside the center city. With the highest density of any city in Europe, twice that of New York City, Paris has a powerful vibrancy day and night.
• The first view you come to is...
Looking East down the Champs-Elysées: Scan the cityscape of downtown Paris. That lonely hill in the distance a bit to the left is Montmartre, topped by the white dome of Sacré-Cœur; until 1860, this hill town was a separate city. Panning right at about 11 o’clock, find the bulky Opéra Garnier’s pitched roof rising above other buildings, the blue top of the modern Pompidou Center, and the Louvre and Tuileries Garden at high noon, capping the east end of the Champs-Elysées. Let your eyes move right to see the distant twin towers of Notre-Dame, the dome of the Panthéon breaking the horizon, a block of small skyscrapers on a hill (the Quartier d’Italie, which is outside the city center), and, closer in, the golden dome of Les Invalides. Behind Les Invalides, find the lonely-looking Montparnasse Tower, standing like the box the Eiffel Tower came in; in the early 1970s, it served as a wake-up call to city planners that they needed to preserve building height restrictions and strengthen urban design standards.
Appreciate the symmetry of this massive traffic hub. Each corner building immediately below is part of an elegant grand scheme. The beauty of Paris—basically a flat basin with a river running through it—is man-made. There’s a harmonious relationship between the width of its grand boulevards and the standard height and design of the buildings. Move to your right and look closer to spot several small, golden onion domes crowning a vast Russian Orthodox cathedral and spiritual center.
Looking West: Cross the arch and look to the west. In the distance, the huge, white, rectangular Grande Arche de la Défense, standing amid skyscrapers, is the final piece of a grand city axis—from the Louvre, up the Champs-Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, and continuing on to a forest of skyscrapers at La Défense, three miles away. Former French president François Mitterrand had the Grande Arche built as a centerpiece of this mini-Manhattan. The contrast between the skyscrapers of La Défense and the uniform heights of the buildings in the city center is jarring.
Below you, notice how every street is lined with trees that give pedestrians shade in summer (keeping the city cooler) and some protection when it rains. The wide boulevard lined with grass and trees angling to your left is Avenue Foch (named after the WWI hero), which ends at the huge Bois de Boulogne park. Avenue Foch is the best address to have in Paris. Nicknamed the “Avenue of Millionaires,” it was home to the last shah of Iran and Aristotle Onassis. Today many fabulously rich Arabs call it home. To the left of La Défense (in the Bois de Boulogne) are the glassy “sails” of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. This wavy building, another of Frank Gehry’s wild creations, offers contemporary art exhibits (see here for more). The out of place skyscraper to the right between you and La Défense is the Hôtel Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile, which delivers a fine view from its bar (described on here).
The Etoile: Gaze down at what appears to be a chaotic traffic mess. The 12 boulevards that radiate from the Arc de Triomphe (forming an étoile, star) were part of Baron Haussmann’s master plan for Paris: the creation of a series of major boulevards intersecting at diagonals, with monuments (such as the Arc de Triomphe) as centerpieces of those intersections (see sidebar on here). Haussmann’s plan did not anticipate the automobile—obvious when you watch the traffic scene below. But see how smoothly it functions. Cars entering the circle have the right of way (the only roundabout in France with this rule); those in the circle must yield. Still, there are plenty of accidents, many caused by tourists oblivious to the rules. Tired of disputes, insurance companies split the fault and damages of any Arc de Triomphe accident 50/50. The trick is to make a parabola—get to the center ASAP, and then begin working your way out two avenues before you want to exit.
• We’ll start our stroll down the Champs-Elysées at the Charles de Gaulle-Etoile Métro stop, on the north (sunnier) side of the street where the tunnel deposits you. Look straight down the Champs-Elysées toward Tuileries Garden at the far end.
You’re at the top of one of the world’s grandest and most celebrated streets, home to big business, celebrity cafés, glitzy nightclubs, high-fashion shopping, and international people-watching. People gather here to celebrate Bastille Day (July 14), World Cup triumphs, the finale of the Tour de France (see sidebar later in the chapter), and the ends of wars.
In 1667, Louis XIV opened the first section of the street as a short extension of the Tuileries Garden. This year is considered the birth of Paris as a grand city. The Champs-Elysées soon became the place to cruise in your carriage. (It still is today; traffic can be gridlocked even at midnight.) One hundred years later, the café scene arrived. From the 1920s until the 1960s, this boulevard was pure elegance; Parisians actually dressed up to come here. It was mainly residences, rich hotels, and cafés. Then, in 1963, the government pumped up the neighborhood’s commercial metabolism by bringing in suburban trains to give commuters easy access, and pfft—there went the neighborhood. Today’s visitors can expect security checks inside any store on this famous avenue.
• Start your descent, pausing at the first tiny street you cross, Rue de Tilsitt. This street is part of a “shadow ring road”—an option for drivers who’d like to avoid the chaos of the Arc—complete with stoplights.
A few steps down Rue de Tilsitt is a building housing the Qatar Embassy (stand as far back as you can to take it in). It’s one of the few survivors of a dozen uniformly U-shaped buildings from Haussmann’s original 1853 grand design.
Back on the main drag, look across to the other side of the Champs-Elysées at the big, gray, concrete-and-glass “Publicis” building. Ugh. In the 1960s, venerable old buildings (similar to the Qatar Embassy building) were leveled to make way for new commercial operations like Publicis. Then, in 1985, a law prohibited the demolition of the old building fronts that gave the boulevard a uniform grace. Today, many modern businesses hide behind preserved facades.
Most of this tour is a stroll down the left side, which—because it gets more sun and therefore lots more pedestrians—earns landlords double the rent.
The nouveau Champs-Elysées, revitalized in 1994, has newer benches and lamps, broader sidewalks, all-underground parking, and a fleet of green-suited workers who drive motorized street cleaners. Blink away the modern elements, and it’s not hard to imagine the boulevard pre-1963, with only the finest structures lining both sides all the way to the palace gardens.
A hundred yards farther down on the left (at #140), the arrival of McDonald’s in the 1970s was a shock to the boulevard...and to the country. At first it was allowed to have only white arches painted on the window. Today, dining chez MacDo has become typically Parisian. France has more than a thousand McDonald’s, and the Champs-Elysées branch is considered among the most profitable in the world.
On one day every July, the Champs-Elysées is the focus of the world’s sports fans, when it serves as the finish line of the Tour de France bicycle race. (While the overall winner is decided by the time they arrive in Paris, the last stage—which includes 10 laps on this boulevard—is one last chance for bikers to take home a yellow jersey.)
For three weeks, French sporting life comes to a standstill as the Tour de France whizzes across the nation’s landscape and TV screens, pushing the world’s top cyclists to their physical extremes and fans to the edges of their seats. What began in 1903 as a six-day publicity stunt for a cycling newspaper—in the era of wood-framed bikes and wine-and-cigarette breaks—has since grown into the sport’s most prestigious race: a grueling 21-day, 2,000-mile test of strength and stamina, fueled by cutting-edge equipment and training regimens.
The route changes each year, but always finishes on the Champs-Elysées. The riders cycle slowly into Paris from its outskirts, savoring the views. Then, as they approach the city center, the race begins in earnest. Up and down the Champs-Elysées they go, making several laps. Thousands of spectators line the street, cheering them on. Finally, the cyclists speed down the boulevard one last time and cross the finish line, spilling into Place de la Concorde. The winner takes a slow victory lap, followed by the peloton (the pack), to acknowledge the crowd and then stops at a makeshift podium at the base of the street. There he’s declared champion and raises his fists in salute, exalted by the dramatic backdrop of the Arc de Triomphe.
The long race is divided into daily stages, during which riders compete both as individuals and as members of their nine-man team. While the Tour produces only one overall winner, cycling is very much a team sport, and each member is critical (the loss of any rider along the way generally dooms a team’s chances).
Minimizing air resistance is key to strategy, and riders spend most of each stage “drafting” behind domestiques (“servants,” usually young riders paying their dues), who take turns pedaling in front. The team’s constant maneuvering is a matter of choreographed precision, aimed at minimizing fatigue...and the chance of a collision. At the end of each stage, fans breathlessly watch for that critical moment when the lead riders break away for the final sprint. Meanwhile, the team tries to jockey its way to the best position within the peloton while plotting how best to tap its members’ varied talents over the course of the race.
Specialists ride to bolster their team and to compete for their own distinctions: Climbers, usually smaller racers, battle to wear the maillot à pois rouges (red-polka-dot jersey), awarded to the “King of the Mountains.” Bigger riders are usually sprinters, who vie for the maillot vert (green jersey). Time trialists help lower the team’s aggregate time by excelling at individual races, where they must maintain high speeds over a long distance. The team’s star is its captain, usually a solid “all-rounder.” He’s going for the famous maillot jaune (yellow jersey), worn by whoever holds the overall lead in the “general classification” standings at the end of each stage. A complex point system helps determine who has the lowest cumulative time—and, ultimately, who gets the €2.3 million prize, and recognition as the world’s greatest cyclist.
If you catch the Tour in person, you’ll experience the excitement firsthand and hear the loud whoosh of passing cyclists—but they’re gone in a blink (viewing is best—and most crowded—on uphill slopes; for dates and details, see www.letour.fr). Any time of year, you imagine the Tour’s final stretch here on the nation’s grandest avenue, where cheering crowds cram the sidewalks, their necks craned for a glimpse of the yellow jersey.
A Big Mac here, at a sidewalk table, buys good people-watching. Notice how many of the happy clients are French and how efficient the big screens are for managing the onslaught of orders. The popularity of le fast-food in Paris is a sign that life has changed, and that the era of two-hour lunches is passé. The most commonly ordered dish in French restaurants is now—by far and away—the hamburger (both as fast food and as a trendy gourmet dish). The French must now compete in a global world, and if that means adopting a more American lifestyle, c’est la vie.
In the 19th century, this was a district for horse stables; today, it’s the district of boutiques, cafés, and theaters.
At #116 find the UGC multiplex cinema. Moviegoing on the Champs-Elysées is a big deal (and fun for tourists), with theaters showing the latest releases. Find the posted movie schedule and check if there are films you recognize, then look for the showings (séances). “VO” (version originale) next to the time indicates the film will be shown in its original language with French subtitles; “VF” stands for version française. Until recently, this was the site of the famous Lido, Paris’ largest cabaret, which offered glitzy Vegas-style shows with sequined dancers, cabaret singers, and vaudeville acts. After 75 years, the Lido succumbed to pandemic-related struggles and closed its doors.
Two doors farther down is Petit Bateau. The presence of this children’s clothing store on the Champs-Elysées is proof of the success of the government’s efforts to encourage couples to have more babies. With generous financial rewards for each child, France’s birthrate is well above the rest of Europe’s.
• Next, cross the boulevard (be careful of the bike lane) then pause at the center to enjoy the view and energy. Look back at the Arc de Triomphe, its rooftop bristling with tourists. Notice the variety of architecture along this street—old and elegant, new, and new-behind-old-facades. Notice too how the broad sidewalks and now the bike lanes constrict traffic even more. (They say city politics here is divided as much by those who own cars and those who don’t as by left and right.) Continue to the big and proud Louis Vuitton store.
The flagship store of this famous producer of leather bags may be the largest single-brand luxury store in the world. Step inside. The store provides enough salespeople to treat each customer royally—if there’s a line, it means shoppers have overwhelmed the place. If you need clothing and shoes to put in your fancy new bag, head upstairs.
• Continue downhill. Cross Avenue George V and find Fouquet’s, a Paris institution. The white spire you see down Avenue George V is the American Cathedral.
Fouquet’s café-restaurant (#99), under the red awning, is the place to enjoy a slow (if pricey) coffee on the Champs-Elysées. Opened in 1899 as a coachman’s bistro, Fouquet’s gained fame as the hangout of France’s WWI biplane fighter pilots—those who weren’t shot down by Germany’s infamous “Red Baron.” It also served as James Joyce’s dining room.
Since the early 1900s, Fouquet’s has been a favorite of French celebrities. The golden plaques at the entrance honor winners of France’s Oscar-like film awards, the Césars. There are plaques for Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, Yves Montand, Sophia Loren, Sean Connery, Juliette Binoche, and several famous Americans (but not Jerry Lewis). More recent winners are shown on the floor just inside. Every February, after the Césars are handed out at a nearby theater, France’s biggest movie stars descend on Fouquet’s. Here they emerge from their limos for the night’s grandest red-carpet event as they make their way inside for the official gala dinner.
The hushed interior is at once classy and intimidating—and also a grand experience...if you dare. Enter and be guided to a table, inside or out, where you can splurge for a pricey espresso (outside of meal times, when tables are set for diners). Or, to say “I’m just looking” in French, say “Je regarde”—zhuh ruh-gard (though fluent English is spoken). The outdoor setting is more relaxed, but everyone still looks rich and famous to me.
Once threatened with foreign purchase and eventual destruction, Fouquet’s was spared that fate when the government declared it a historic monument. The upscale café was set on fire in March 2019 by anti-government “yellow vest” protestors, who saw it as a symbol of France’s elite.
Ladurée (two blocks downhill at #75) is a classic 19th-century tea salon/restaurant/pâtisserie. Nonpatrons can discreetly wander around the place, though photos are not allowed. A coffee here is très élégant and reasonable. The bakery sells traditional macarons and cute little cakes to go.
• Cross back to the lively (north) side of the street. Macaron lovers swoon at Pierre Hermé. Others turn left and go about 40 yards uphill (to #92) where a wall plaque marks the 8 place Thomas Jefferson lived while serving as minister to France (1785-1789). He replaced popular Benjamin Franklin but quickly made his own mark, extolling the virtues of America’s Revolution to a country approaching its own. Back downhill, find two good-value lunch options: Boulangerie Paul and La Brioche Dorée (see the sidebar at the beginning of this chapter).
Stroll into the Arcades des Champs-Elysées mall at #76. With its fancy lamps, mosaic floors, glass skylight, and classical columns, it captures faint echoes of the années folles—the “crazy years,” as the Roaring ’20s were called in France. Architecture enthusiasts can observe how the flowery Art Nouveau of the 1910s became the simpler, more geometric Art Deco of the 1920s. The Starbucks may seem out of place here, but the ambience is great.
Next door, at #74, the Galerie du Claridge building sports an old facade. You’d never guess that its ironwork awning, balconies, putti, and sculpted fantasy faces disguise an otherwise new building. One of the current tenants is FNAC, a French version of Best Buy, where you can buy everything from phone chargers to concert tickets, or make museum reservations (at the rear counter).
For a noisy and fragrant commercial carnival of perfumes, and a chance to sense the French passion for cosmetics, take your nose sightseeing at #72 and glide down the ramp of the largest Sephora in France. Grab a disposable white strip from a lovely clerk, spritz it with a sample, and sniff. In the main showroom, women’s perfumes line the right wall and men’s line the left—organized alphabetically by company, from Armani to Versace.
While Sephora seems to be going all out to attract the general public, the venerable Guerlain perfume shop sits next door and shows off a dash of the Champs-Elysées’ old gold-leaf elegance. Notice the 1914 details. Climb upstairs. It’s très French. If Sephora is a mosh-pit for your nose, Guerlain is a harem.
At the intersection with Rue la Boëtie, the English-speaking pharmacy is open until midnight (entrance around the corner).
Car buffs should detour across the boulevard, walk a block down to #33, and park themselves at the 10 Renault store. Though the exhibits change regularly, there’s always something hot to entertain car aficionados.
Back on earth, a bit farther down on the north side, the Disney, Lululemon, and Foot Locker stores are reminders of global economics: The French may live in a world of their own, but they love these places as much as Americans do.
At the Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées, the shopping ends and the park begins. This round, leafy traffic circle is often colorful, lined with flowers or seasonal decorations (thousands of pumpkins at Halloween, hundreds of decorated trees at Christmas). Avenue Montaigne, jutting off to the right, is lined by the most exclusive shops in town—the kinds of places where you need to make an appointment to buy a dress.
• If you’re pooped, Rond-Point’s Métro stop (Mo: Franklin D. Roosevelt) is a good place to cut this walk short. Otherwise, continue downhill on the right side. Arc around Rond-Point and stroll for about 200 yards farther downhill. The square at Place Clemenceau and Avenue de Marigny features a high-pedestaled 13 statue of Charles de Gaulle—ramrod-straight and striding purposefully, as he did the day Paris was liberated in 1944. One long block up Avenue de Marigny to the north is the well-secured Elysée Palace—the official residence of the French president. But our walk takes us south to the...
From the statue of de Gaulle, a grand boulevard (Avenue Winston Churchill) passes through the site of the 1900 World’s Fair, leading between the glass-and steel-domed Grand and Petit Palais exhibition halls and across the river over the ornate bridge called Pont Alexandre III. (You can view these sights from the statue, if you don’t feel like walking down to the bridge.) Imagine pavilions like the two you see today lining this street all the way to the golden dome of Les Invalides—examples of the “can-do” spirit that ran rampant in Europe at the dawn of the 20th century.
Today, the huge Grand Palais (on the right side, under renovation until at least 2025) houses impressive, large-scale temporary exhibits. That massive, domed glass roof apparently weighs more than the Eiffel Tower. The smaller Petit Palais (left side) has a pleasing permanent collection of lesser paintings by Courbet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, and other 19th-century masters. It’s free to enter and has a garden café that’s worth a quick detour (fine WCs with no lines). For more on these museums, see here.
Looking to the Seine, notice the exquisite Pont Alexandre III, spiked with golden statues and ironwork lamps, which was built to celebrate a turn-of-the-20th-century treaty between France and Russia. The grand and gilded dome in the distance marks Les Invalides, built by Louis XIV as a veterans’ hospital for his battle-weary troops (covered in the Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb Tour). The esplanade leading up to Les Invalides—possibly the largest patch of accessible grass in the city—gives soccer balls and Frisbees a warm Paris welcome.
• From the de Gaulle statue it’s a straight shot down the rest of the Champs-Elysées to the finish line. (Speaking of finish lines, this stretch is where the Tour de France reaches its annual climax—see sidebar.) The plane trees that you’ll see—a kind of sycamore with peeling bark—thrive even in big-city pollution. They’re a legacy of Napoleon III—president/emperor from 1849 to 1870—who had 600,000 trees planted to green up the city. Your final destination is the 21-acre Place de la Concorde. View it from the obelisk in the center.
During the Revolution, this was the Place de la Révolution. The guillotine sat on this square, and many of the 2,780 people who were beheaded during the Revolution lost their bodies here during the Reign of Terror. A bronze plaque in the ground in front of the obelisk memorializes the place where Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Georges Danton, Charlotte Corday, and Maximilien de Robespierre, among about 1,200 others, were made “a foot shorter on top.” Three people worked the guillotine: One managed the blade, one held the blood bucket, and one caught the head, raising it high to the roaring crowd. (In 1981, France abolished the death penalty—one of many preconditions for membership in today’s European Union.)
The 3,300-year-old, 72-foot, 220-ton, red granite, hieroglyph-inscribed obelisk of Luxor now forms the centerpiece of Place de la Concorde. Here—on the spot where Louis XVI was beheaded—his brother (Charles X) erected this obelisk to honor those who’d been executed. (Charles became king when the monarchy was restored after Napoleon.) The obelisk was carted here from Egypt in the 1830s. The gold pictures on the pedestal tell the story of the obelisk’s incredible two-year journey: pulled down from the entrance to Ramses II’s Temple of Amon in Luxor; encased in wood; loaded onto a boat built to navigate both shallow rivers and open seas; floated down the Nile, across the Mediterranean, along the Atlantic coast, and up the Seine; and unloaded here, where it was reerected in 1836. Its glittering gold-leaf cap is a recent addition (1998), replacing the original, which was stolen 2,500 years ago.
Looking up the Champs-Elysées, the obelisk forms a center point along a line that locals call the “royal perspective.” You can hang a lot of history along this straight line (Louvre-obelisk-Arc de Triomphe-Grande Arche de la Défense). The Louvre symbolizes the old regime (the divine right of kings). The obelisk and Place de la Concorde symbolize the people’s Revolution (cutting off the king’s head). The Arc de Triomphe calls to mind the triumph of nationalism (victorious armies carrying national flags under the arch). And the huge modern arch in the distance, surrounded by the headquarters of multinational corporations, heralds a future in which business entities are more powerful than nations.
• Our walk is over. From here the closest Métro stop is Concorde (entrance hides in the northeast corner of the square, away from the river on the Tuileries Garden side); buses #42 and #73 stop in the square near the Hôtel Crillon and run up the Champs-Elysées (#42 continues to the Eiffel Tower). Taxis congregate outside Hôtel Crillon. But if you’re not quite ready to go, Paris has more to offer...
The beautiful Tuileries Garden (with a public WC just inside on the right) is just through the iron gates. Pull up a chair next to a pond or at one of the cafés in the garden. From the garden you can access the Orangerie Museum and, at the other end, the Louvre.
On the north side of Place de la Concorde, 16 Hôtel Crillon is one of Paris’ most exclusive hotels. Of the twin buildings that guard the entrance to Rue Royale (which leads to the Greek-style Church of the Madeleine), it’s the one on the left. This hotel is so fancy that one of its belle époque rooms is displayed in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eleven years before Louis XVI lost his head on Place de la Concorde, he met with Benjamin Franklin in this hotel to sign a treaty recognizing the US as an independent country. You can enter the hotel (elegant WCs a floor down after entering) and enjoy a pricey hot or cold drink in the elegant salon (also high tea on Fri-Sun afternoons), or savor a cocktail in the over-the top, Versailles-inspired bar. Today’s low-profile, heavily fortified US Embassy and Consulate is located next to the hotel.
Nearby, those of a certain generation may want to seek out Maxim’s restaurant (3 Rue Royale), once the world’s most glamorous bistro (c. 1900-1970) and a nightspot frequented by everyone from British royalty to Jackie O. Today, its famed carved-wood, Art Nouveau exterior and high prices remain intact, but it’s become a generic link in a chain franchise. Farther north up Rue Royale is a fancy shopping area near Place de la Madeleine (see the Shopping in Paris chapter).
South of Place de la Concorde is the 17 Pont de la Concorde, the bridge that leads to the many-columned building where the French National Assembly (similar to the US Congress) meets. The Pont de la Concorde, built of stones from the Bastille prison (which was demolished by the Revolution in 1789), symbolizes the concorde (harmony) that can come from chaos—through good government. The bridge arcs over a freeway underpass that was converted to a pedestrian-only promenade in 2014 and is well worth a stroll.
Stand midbridge and gaze upriver (east). The Orangerie hides behind the trees at 10 o’clock, and the tall building with the skinny chimneys at 11 o’clock is the architectural caboose of the sprawling Louvre palace. The thin spire of Sainte-Chapelle is dead center at 12 o’clock, with the twin towers of Notre-Dame to its right. The Orsay Museum is closer on the right, connected with the Tuileries Garden by a sleek pedestrian bridge (the next bridge upriver) or by the riverside promenade on the Left Bank. Paris awaits.