France: Paris: De l'Arc de Triomphe au Louvre

A good way to spend a day in Paris is to start at the Arc de Triomphe, and make your way up the Champs Elysées to Place de la Concorde, then continue on through the Tuileries gardens to the Louvre.  This well-known route is easy to follow and you're always within a few blocks of the Seine (as are most of the main sights in Paris).  

The first time we went to the Arc de Triomphe was during the annual Armistice Day (known as Remembrance Day in Canada) ceremony on November 11th.  Nicholas Sarkozy, the President, gave a speech and there was a military parade.  It was hard to see anything from our spot in the crowd but it was a very interesting and solemn experience, to be sure.  Sarkozy read off the names of a dozen or so French soldiers who had died in action in the past year, mort pour la patrie.  We went back to the Arc de Triomphe in the evening, a few days later.  The view from the top (50 m high) is quite something - you can see the Eiffel Tower and many of the main sights of Paris.  In a creative bit of civil planning, 12 avenues converge on the Place de l'Étoile (Star Place), which has the arch at its centre. 

The Arc de Triomphe at night.

View from under the arch.

 

 The Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon after his greatest victory, at Austerlitz in 1805.  Promising his soldiers they would "go home beneath triumphal arches",  the names of famous battles fought by the French and celebrated generals are carved into the stone, shown in this picture.

 

The French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: "Here rests a French soldier, who died for his country, 1914-1918".  It's here that the main Armistice Day ceremonies are held in France. While we were there a group of about 20 soldiers arrived to light the eternal flame, which is done every evening.

View of the Champs Elysées, which translates as "the Elysian Fields" - the Greco-Roman name for their conception of the heaven for heroes.  This is probably the most famous street in Paris, where national celebrations, parades, and the last leg of the Tour de France are held.  It runs in a straight line from the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde.

The Champs Elysées, at 10:30 am on Armistice Day.  The avenue had been closed to traffic for the ceremony.  The military was gathering on the other side of the arch.  A huge French flag is hanging in the archway.

A gendarme working crowd control for the Armistice Day ceremony.

An arcade, or shopping gallery, on the Champs Elysées.  This avenue is notoriously touristy, and is home to many high-end boutiques, like Cartier and Louis Vuitton.  We did pass a McDonalds though - very high class and very French!

Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysées.

 

The boys really wanted to go into this store.  Even I can tell this is a nice car!

A statue of General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French during WWII and later the founder and first President of the Fifth French Republic.

There are many beautiful avenues that intersect with the Avenue des Champs Elysées.  We decided to divert a little bit and take a walk down Ave. Winston Churchill, to the Pont Alexandre III, arguably the most beautiful bridge in Paris. 

The Grand Palais,  an elaborate exhibition hall on Ave Winston Churchill.  There was a photography exhibition going on when we walked by, with the line up to get in over an hour long. 

Across the street the Petit Palace (small palace), home to the art collections of the City of Paris. 

Pont Alexandre III, built between 1896 and 1900 in honour of the Russian Tsar, following the signing of the 1892 French-Russian alliance.  It's a beautiful example of Art Nouveau design, with gilt lamps and bronze statues.  In the distance, at the end of the bridge, is Les Invalides.  This enormous complex was originally built in 1670 as a residence for wounded veterans, "the invalides", and is still home for 100 soldiers.  Today it also holds a museum of the military in WWII.  The large dome belongs to the Dome Church, Louis XIV's private chapel, which was to be exclusively used by the monarch.  This is where Napoleon was buried after his death in exile on the island of St. Helena, and his body is encased in 6 coffins and a magnificent sarcophagus.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit Les Invalides, but this is one of the things I'd most like to see the next time I visit Paris.

Pont Alexandre is one of the finest works of 19th century engineering in Paris - an 18th ft high single-span steel arch over the Seine.  From the bridge you can enjoy fabulous view of the Invalides, the Champs Elysées and the Eiffel Tower.


The Eiffel Tower, from the Pont Alexandre.  I wouldn't pay the 18 € to take the elevator to the top today...

After visiting the Pont Alexandre, we turned back up Ave. Winston Churchill and continued up the Champs Elysées to Place de la Concorde.  The square is known as one of the most beautiful in Europe, a far cry from the swamp that was here until the mid-18th century.  The square was originally named after King Louis XV, but his statue of himself on horseback was torn down after less than 20 years when the square was remained the Place de la Révolution.  This is where Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793, and where 1,300 other people, including Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday (Marat's assassin), and even revolutionary leaders Danton and Robespierre met a similar fate.  After the Reign of Terror ended in 1794, the square was optimistically renamed Place de la Concorde (Square of amity), and the guillotine was replaced with the 3,200 year old Egyptian obelisk that stands there today. 

Place de la Concorde.

 

The obelisk in Place de la Corcorde, with a view down the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe.

3,200 year old carvings on the obelisk, a gift to King Louis Philippe from the Viceroy of Egypt.

The obelisk and the Eiffel Tower, from Place de la Concorde

Continuing in a straight line from the Champs Elysées, across Place de la Concorde, is the Jardin des Tuileries, a statue-covered neoclassical garden that is serene even in dreary November.  The gardens once belonged to the royal Palais des Tuileries, but this was razed to the ground by revolutionaries in 1871. 

Jardin des Tuileries, looking towards the Louvre in the distance.

At the end of the Jardin des Tuileries is the Musée du Louvre, the most visited art museum in the world, with over 8,500,000 visitors a year.  I'd heard it was common to wait hours to get inside, but fortunately for us in November we only had to wait about 10 minutes before we got to the airport-style security check.  The palace was first built as a fortress in 1190, to protect Paris from Viking raids.  It was later replaced by a Renaissance building and was continually renovated by the Kings of France (many of whom made it their primary residence) for centuries, even after the Revolution, during the Restoration of the monarchy.  

In front of the museum is the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel, also commissioned by Napoleon.  It's directly in line with the obelisk in Place de la Concorde and the more famous Arc de Triomphe.

The Arc de Triomphe in Place de l'Étoile and the obelisk in Place de la Concorde, seen through the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, in front of the Louvre.  

The entrance to the museum is through the controversial glass pyramid, designed by I.M. Pei in 1989.  The modernization of the palace also saw the installation of an inverted glass pyramid, that lets light into the underground lobby.  Until this renovation, an entire wing of the palace was still occupied by the Ministry of Finance.

 The glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre.


Taken from the gallery window.  



Looking towards the Tuileries.

Inside the pyramid - very cool architecture.

The famous inverted pyramid lets natural light into an underground shopping gallery next to the museum lobby.  Very American for such an iconic French location - an Apple Store, Starbucks, and McDonalds!

The inverted pyramid.

The Denon wing.  The Louvre is made up of two long wings that frame the large courtyard containing the glass pyramid, and which continues down to the Tuileries. 

An entrance to the courtyard from the Quai du Louvre, which runs along the Seine.

Intricate details on the outer walls of the palace.

We spent about 3 hours in the Louvre the first day we went, then came back for another two hours because the museum closed earlier than it said on the website and we hadn't seen everything we wanted to yet.  Some of the wings were closed as well, and my guide book even says "visitors should request a schedule of room closure from the information pint since not all the rooms are open on any given day".  Fairly bizarre level of disorganization for the world's most popular art museum...

The collection is truly astounding.  There's something for everyone: from the Egyptian collection to the Renaissance art and the beautiful Napoleon III suites.  If you're looking for Impressionist art, however, you're better off going to the Musée d'Orsay or the Musée de l'Orangerie, which contain some of the most well known paintings by masters such as Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh.  The European painting collection (1200-1848) contains arguably the most famous work of art in the world: the Mona Lisa (or La Joconde in French).  There was the inevitable horde of tourists taking photos of it behind the glass shield and rope barrier.  I'm surprised they let photographs in here, most museums prohibit them and especially with such a valuable piece I think they'd be concerned, but perhaps the glass protects the painting from the harmful effects of flash.  The painting was actually larger than I expected, probably because I'd heard so often about how it's so much smaller than everyone thinks it will be, so my expectations were low.  It is truly a special painting.  I'm sure all they hype makes you think about it differently but there's just something about it... I can't really explain but it's definitely worth seeing.

 

Picture of people taking pictures of the Mona Lisa.

There are two other painting by Da Vinci in the museum: St. John the Baptist (wearing an enigmatic grin and pointing heavenward), and Madonna of the Rocks, which you may remember from The Da Vinci Code.  The former is currently on temporary display in the National Gallery in London, for the first time ever shown side-by-side with another version of Madonna of the Rocks painted by Da Vinci.  One of the other important paintings in the gallery is the monumental picture depicting the coronation of Napoleon and Josephine:

 Napoleon crowning himself.

The sculpture collection is very extensive, and includes works from the Greek, Roman and 1100-1848 European period.  The first stairway you go out has this incredible winged statue on the landing: 

The Victory of Samothrace, 2-3rd century Greece. 

 

There are galleries entirely dedicated to sculpture but they are also scattered about the picture galleries. 

The Venus de Milo.  Greece, late 3rd - early 2nd century BC.

 

I love "veiled" statues, I imagine they must have been incredibly difficult to make.

There is also a large collection of Objets d'Art, which includes a wide range of items: from jewelry to tapestries, furniture and porcelain.  As the gallery that contains them was under renovation, many of the Crown Jewels (how they survived the Revolution I'd be interested to know) were being temporarily kept in a bank vault somewhere. There were, however a few on display:

Empress Eugenie's and the Duchess of Angoulême's diadems and matching chokers, 19th century.  These are some of the most elegant and beautiful crowns I've ever seen - the photo doesn't do them justice. 

What I liked the best about the Louvre palace were the Napoleon III rooms, which occupy an entire floor of one of the wings.  Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, holds the unusual distinction of being both the first titular President of France, and following a coup d'état, its last monarch.  In the second half of the 19th century, he had this wing of the palace renovated, and today it is a beautiful example of interior decoration from this period.  I'd never heard of it before, and there were very few people there, so it was a very pleasant surprise.  There were many beautiful rooms, furniture, and the diadems of Empress Eugenie and the Duchess of Angoulême shown above.  Below is a collection of photographs from this wing:

One final photograph to leave you with: the base of the twin towers and drawbridge support of the medieval fortress, in the excavated area of the medieval moats: