A Walk to the Arc...

The Champs Elysee

During my time in Paris one of my favorite activities was exiting the beautiful Louvre and walking down the historic Champs Elysee toward the Arc de Triomphe. Directly outside the Lourve is a street that is built in essence through the museum. This street was built because the Louvre, being quire large, caused many traffic difficulties. Thus, a street was built for easier access and believe me it's a busy one. Wait for the walk sign!

Also outside the Louvre and before you reach the street there is a miniature Arc de Triomphe. It looks very similar to its larger arc down the street. This is because they were both built in honor of Napoleon. While the large arc does not have animals on top, the smaller arc has green horses atop. These horses were not always green however. These horses are made of copper and after several years atop the arc have eroded and are now an interesting shade of green.

Once you have crossed the street make sure you take a look straight toward the large Arc de Triomphe. From here you will notice that the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and small Arc de Triomphe all line up perfectly.

As you walk along towards the Champs Elysee there are several interesting sites. On your left will be the large sports center with red and yellow flags atop. Almost directly across from this on your right is the presidents house. When I was in France the president was still Jacque Chirac. Close to this home but behind you slightly is the American Embassy.

About half way to the actual street of the Champs Elysee is a fountain plaza where you can sit and rest. Many of the cities people were out feeding ducks and relaxing in the sun. After you finally reach the street; note the walk from the Loure to the Arc is a long one. We stopped in the middle to see a movie it was that long.

When you reach the street you enter an expensive shopping district, or expensive for a college student at least! As you travel further you see many movie theaters. These theaters are famous for hosting premieres of new films. Since we were there on the off season tickets were relatively inexpensive although more expensive than American theaters. Do not let this discourage you though; you want to spend that much believe me! My group saw a Chinese film that was of course in Chinese and then had subtitles in French. It was a rough movie. I had no idea what was going on, and it didn't help that the movie was strange to begin with.

What interested me about the whole experience was the theater itself. Inside the theaters are not so large as American theaters. And the chairs are AMAZING! I kid you not the chairs are each an individual seat and like a lounger you would have at home. It's like going to your own personal home theater. France has followed America's lead and begun to sell concessions at the theater. Before that time however, the theaters in Paris brought around snacks at an intermission half way through the movie. And another thing, if you decide to go to a movie go late. All the Parisians showed up at least 20 minutes late.

Once we left the theater we were about 2/3 of the way to the Arc. It is very pretty at night. Once we reached there we hopped the metro because our feet wanted to fall off.