Arc de Triomphe
From Paris Hotels Reviews
The best view of the Champs-Elysees and Voie Triomphale is from the top of the Arc de Triomphe (daily: April-Sept 10am-11pm; Oct-March 10am-10:30pm; €8;M° Charles-de-Gaulle-Etoile), towering up in the middle of place Charles-de-Gaulle, better known as place de l'Etoile and once dubbed “place de la Traffic” for reasons that become clear as you approach what's essentially a giant roundabout. The arch is modelled on the ancient Roman triumphal arches and is impressive in scale, memorably likened in Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami to "a shapeless giant on two monstrously large legs, that looks as if it's about to stride off down the Champs Elysees". The arch was begun by Napoleon in 1806 in homage to his Grande Armée, but it wasn't actually finished until 1836 by Louis-Philippe, who dedicated it to the French army in general. Later, victorious German armies would make a point of marching through the arch to compound the humiliation of the French. After the Prussians' triumphal march in 1871, Parisians lit bonfires beneath the arch and down the Champs-Elysées to eradicate the “stain” of German boots. Still a potent symbol of the country's military might, the arch is the starting point for the annual Bastille Day procession, a bombastic march-past of tanks, guns and flags. A more poignant ceremony is conducted every evening at 6:30pm at the foot of the monument, when war veterans stroke up the flame at the tomb of an unknown soldier, killed in the Great War. Not even the Nazi occupation of Paris on June 14, 1942, could interrupt this sacred act of remembrance. At 6:30pm that day German troops gathering around the Arc de Triomphe were astonished to see two elderly French soldiers marching towards them in full dress uniform. The Germans instinctively stood to attention while Edmond Ferrand, the guardian of the Eternal Flame, and André Gaudin, a member of the flame's committee, solemnly saluted it; the Germans, somewhat disconcerte, apparently followed suit.
Access to the arch is via underground stairs on the north corner of the Champs-Elysées. The names of 660 generals and numerous French battles are engraved on its inside, while reliefs adorn the exterior; the best is François Rude's extraordinarily dramatic Marseillaise, in which an Amazon-type figure personifying the Revolution charges forward with a sword, her face contorted in a fierce rallying cry. If you're up for climbing the 280 steps to the top, you'll be amply rewarded with panoramic views, at their best towards dusk on a sunny day when the marble of the Grande Arche de la Défense sparkles in the setting sun and the Louvre is bathed in warm light. While you're up there it's worth taking a look at the small museum, a collection of prints and photos of the Arc de Triomphe's history. These are records of Victor Hugo's funeral in 1885, when over half the population of Paris turned out to pay their respects to the poet, his coffin mounted on a huge bier beneath the arch, draped in black velvet for the occasion. Other documents show alternative proposals for a triumphal monument before the arch itself was settled on; if things had gone differently you might have been climbing up steps into the belly of a giant elephant with a fountain gushing out of its trunk.
