Paris Champs-Elysees

The Champs-Elysées

The celebrated Avenue des Champs-Elysées is synonymous with glitz and glamour. The Avenue and its district are part of the Voie Triomphale (Triumphal Way): the Historical Axis. This magnificent vista runs through some of Paris’ most celebrated monuments and squares: from the Louvre and the gardens of the Tuileries to La Défense, passing through the Champs-Elysées, which are dominated by the famous Arc de Triomphe. The Grand-Palais and the Petit-Palais are grand additions to the area from La Belle Epoque period.

Les Champs-Elysées

The wide processional avenue had been in Le Nôtre’s mind when the urban architect designed the Tuileries Gardens back in the 17th century. But it was the Duke of Antin who pursued the Grand Cours or ‘Perspective’ up to the mound of Chaillot (Butte de Chaillot) where the Arc de Triomphe now stands majestically. In the 18th century, the promenade was bordered with trees formally planted in a straight line and English gardens were laid out on each side, from the Place de la Concorde up to the Rond Point des Champs-Elysées.

As a famous landmark along the Historical Axis, the Champs-Elysées plays a major role in opening the outlook from the Louvre towards the West, towards the setting sun.

Its current name was adopted in 1709 and derived from the Elysian Fields, a place of final resting for the souls of the heroic and the virtuous in Greek mythology. But the thoroughfare on the axis is nowadays known as “la plus belle avenue du monde” (the most beautiful avenue in the world). The long avenue of nearly two kilometres is 70m wide, therefore not the widest in Paris (Avenue Foch is 120m wide with its central gardens).

The Avenue des Champs-Elysées

“Les Champs” (as the Parisians called the avenue) is a glamorous thoroughfare cutting through Paris’ most exclusive district where tourists, strollers and businessmen mingle.

The lower section of the avenue, from the Place de la Concorde to the Rond Point des Champs-Elysées, is bordered on each side by the English gardens designed by the architect Hittorff (1838). Consisting of lawns, beautiful conker trees and shrubberies, they blend harmoniously with the pleasure pavilions.

The gardens (“Jardins des Champs-Elysées”) are divided in rectangular areas called “Carrés” (squares). On the north side of the avenue are the carré des Ambassadeurs (close to the Place de la Concorde, including the Espace Cardin), the carré de l’Elysée (in front of the beautiful railings of the Palais de l’Elysée, the residence of the French President), and the carré Marigny (including the Marigny Theatre, the Laurent restaurant and the open-air marionette theatre for children).

On the south side are the carré du Géorama (including the famous Ledoyen restaurant) and the grand carré du Battoir (which is now bordered by the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais).

Place Clémenceau today is a busy square where the Champs-Elysées is crossed by the Avenue de Marigny and the Avenue Winston Churchill. It is bordered by the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. Above the entrance of the metro station “Clémenceau” stands the statue of General Charles de Gaulle. Across the square, on the Petit Palais’ side, lies the statue of George Clémenceau, commissioned by François Cogné in 1932. Further down the Avenue Winston Churchill, under shady trees, is another statue of an illustrious man: Winston Churchill.

From the Place Clémenceau, another ‘Grand Perspective’ opens towards the Hôtel des Invalides, passing through the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, the Pont Alexandre III and the Esplanade des Invalides. Because it was completed during the 3rd French Republic, it was commonly known as the “Republican Axis”, echoing the older “Historical Axis” along the Champs-Elysées.

Place Clémenceau

These impressive buildings were designed for the 1900 Universal Exhibition as a showcase of Paris’ splendour to the world.

The Grand Palais and the Petit Palais

Opposite the Grand Palais stands its “rival”, the Petit Palais. Built at the same time as the Grand Palais by architect Charles Girault, it elegantly displays the architecture of “La Belle Epoque”.

While the Grand Palais belongs to the State, the Petit Palais is owned by the City of Paris which has used it as the Paris Fine Arts Museum (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Paris).

The Petit Palais is organised around a semi-circular courtyard which hosts a garden. The façade presents an iconic colonnade, a grand porch with remarkable railings and a gold-leafed door. The tympanum displays the City of Paris surrounded by muses, by sculptor Jean Antoine Injalbert.

The façade inspired several other buildings in the world, such as the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium (also designed by Charles Girault) and Saigon’s opera house in Vietnam (built in 1900).

At the same time as its counterpart, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais went through a complete and successful renovation in the last decade to return it to its initial glory.

The collections in the Fine Arts Museum feature great pieces of art. In 1902, Eugène and Auguste Dutuit donated their collection of 20,000 items which included antiques, medieval and Renaissance art objects, paintings (Rembrandt, Rubens...), drawings (Schongauer, Dürer...), books, enamels, and porcelain. Then, in 1930, Edward and Julia Tuck bequeathed their collection of French art items of the 18th century.

Other famous features of the Fine Arts Museum include works from Eugène Delacroix, Auguste Renoir, Jacques Louis David, Camille Pissarro, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Gustave Moreau...

The Grand Palais displays a 240 metre long facade by Henri Deglane on Avenue Winston Churchill, with an iconic colonnade behind which runs a mosaic frieze portraying art across different civilisations. Two monumental bronze quadrigae (statues depicting a chariot with flying horses) by Georges Récipon crown each end of the main facade. On the Champs-Elysées’ side, the quadriga depict “Immortality ahead of Time” and on the Seines’ side “Harmony triumphing over Discord”.

A masterpiece of Art Nouveau for its ironwork, the main roof of the Grand Palais is made of steel and glass. The palace is topped by an superb, enormous, flattened dome, 45 metres above the ground. The weight of the glass, iron and steel structure is estimated to be 8,500 tonnes. The metal alone accounts for 6,000 tonnes, equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel Tower built a decade before.

From 1993 to 2005, the Grand Palais was closed to the public during its indoor and outside renovation. Its great hall of 77,000 square metres now hosts temporary exhibitions from around the world. The western side of the building also houses the Palais de la Découverte, a popular museum dedicated to scientific discovery which features a planetarium.

In one of its pediments is an engraving which describes the Grand Palais as a “monument dedicated by the Republic to the glory of French art”.

The Grand Palais

The Petit Palais

The Pont Alexandre III was built in the same period as the Grand and Petit Palais for the 1900 World Exhibition. Its first stone was laid by Nicholas II on the 7th October 1896, celebrating Franco-Russian friendship and was dedicated to the Tsar’s father, Alexander III. Engineers Resal and Alby designed the proposed bridge according to the technical requirements of the day: to not interrupt river traffic passing along the Seine, by building several arches and to avoid masking the beautiful perspective leading to the Invalides. Technically, the Pont Alexandre III was an engineering success, with a 6m high single-span steel arch across the Seine.

This bridge is often called the most beautiful one in Paris because of its extravagant features: candelabras, cherubs and nymphs. The composition of the nymphs in the centre of the bridge symbolises the River Seine on the downstream side and the River Neva on the upstream side. Amongst the 32 bronze candelabras positioned across the bridge, those towards the end of the bridge are much bigger in size and feature cherubs and sea monsters. The decoration along the bridge deck has been richly executed with an aquatic fauna and flora. At each extremity of the bridge are two monumental pillars surmounted by winged horses in bronze. The Pegasus on the South bank symbolise War and those on the North Bank depict Peace. At the feet of the pillars are groups of genies with fish and shells.

The Pont Alexandre III

The Rond Point des Champs-Elysées marks the border between the shady greenery of the Jardins des Champs-Elysées and the built-up area.

Until the mid-1850s, the area of the Champs-Elysées was not really a popular place for the Parisian elite to stroll. It was an unsafe zone of open parklands where brigands and criminals used to hide. When the Allies occupied Paris in 1814, they based their soldiers along the Axis and it is reported that two years were needed to repair the damage.

But the atmosphere started to change when it became the property of the City of Paris in 1828. In the Second Empire (under the reign of Napoleon III) the avenue became attractive to the bourgeoisie thanks to the installation of gas lighting and various embellishments: footpaths, fountains and flowerbeds.

Once the upper-class society built themselves mansions along its length, the Champs-Elysées’ fame rapidly grew and cafés and theatres started to open. The ‘Hôtels Particuliers’ (mansions) have all disappeared today except that of number 25, opposite the Citroen car showroom which has recently undergone a stylish makeover. The “Hôtel de La Païva” was built between 1856 and 1865 and is renowned for its beautiful yellow onyx staircase, which is said to be unique in the world.

The Rond Point des Champs-Elysées and up towards the Arc de Triomphe

This upper part of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées follows the slope leading to the Arc de Triomphe and is bordered by buildings housing various top fashion boutiques, offices and cinemas, synonymous with Parisian glitz and glamour. The list is long as it embraces fashion, luxury specialties, cultural items, cafés and restaurants: Louis Vuitton, Zara, Cartier, the Disney Store, Virgin Megastore, FNAC, Séphora, UGC cinemas, Citroen, La Durée, Fouquets’ etc.

The area just off the Champs-Elysées towards the River Seine is known as the “Triangle d’Or” (Golden Triangle), where the exclusive fashion boutiques are found: Dior, Chanel, Prada... along Rue François 1er et Avenue Montaigne.

The Champs-Elysées attracts more than 1.2 million people a day at the weekend and it is no surprise that the prestigious street accounts for the highest rental and asking prices in Europe.

But most of all, the avenue provides the best location for major public events.

The ‘Champs’ is to this day a major popular rallying point at times of national crisis, where huge gatherings, often spontaneous, have occurred on several occasions: the liberation of Paris on the 26th August 1944, the victory of the 1998 FIFA World cup by the French team or the New Year’s Eve popular gatherings where Champagne flows freely!

The French Republic uses the Champs-Elysées for big military parades on Bastille Day every 14th July. Another major event organised there is the final leg of the Tour de France (since 1975), and the lighting of the Champs-Elysées Christmas lights at the end of November.