8/17: Paris's Majestic Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Montmartre & Jim Morrison

Knowing that Napoleon had the grand Arc de Triomphe built to commemorate his victory at the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz made Steven and me want to visit the iconic sight where so much of Parisian history has taken place over the last two centuries.

It was here that Napoleon's funeral took place, the Nazis made their presence felt on their arrival, and where President Charles de Gaulle triumphantly returned after the Allied liberation.

Detail of the Lady Liberty carving on one of the pillars:

It was only fitting there was a pillar dedicated to Napoleon.

People have been paying their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier since 1921.

From the historic Arch, we took a leisurely stroll down the two-mile long Champs-Élysées, one of the most famous boulevards in the world. One of the first 'sights' was the world's most profitable MacDo, as the French call it, even though McDonald's arrival had been considered to be an unthinkable horror!

The Lido is Paris' largest burlesque-type cabaret and also a multiplex cinema.

Nearby was the flagship store for leather-bag maker Louis Vuitton.

I read that Fouquet's Cafe is a popular spot for French celebrities, particularly movie stars but it certainly didn't look very glamorous mid morning!

When we passed Ladurée, a French luxury bakery and sweets maker created in 1862, I popped in while Steven was quite content to watch Parisiennes, i.e. stunning French women, walk on by!

The confections looked so yummy and the packaging so festive but I was content to just admire both. I don't know if I will practice the same restraint if and when we see their store in Baku, Azerbaijan, soon, however.

In the 1920s, the Champs-Élysées was pure elegance with fancy homes and hotels and lots of cafes. Nowadays, it's home to big business, top-end shopping and international people-watching. These interesting doorways along the boulevard intrigued us more than the high-fashion shopping and fancy car showrooms did.

Abercrombie & Fitch's grand entrance certainly made a statement!

Monument to former President Charles de Gaulle in front of the Grand Palais:

The line of almost box-shaped trees on the lower part of the boulevard was attractive as there had been none I recall where the stores had been.

The Champs-Élysées ended at the Place de la Concorde, Paris' largest square, and one of the prettiest sights in all of Paris for me. We were both so happy we had stuck it out on the Champs and walked its entire length when we saw this beautiful square with its monuments and fountain. 

There were similar monuments at each of the corners of the square dedicated to, or perhaps in honor of, particular cities. I think this was to Strasbourg.

The striking Egyptian obelisk in the square was one of two set up at the Luxor Temple in Egypt by Ramses II and was raised in Paris in October 1833. When we visited Luxor a few years ago, I don't remember being told by our guide that one obelisk was now in Paris. I wonder what the story is how France came to receive it so long ago.

It was when I admired the obelisk from another angle I also noticed the Eiffel Tower in the background!

It was an easy jaunt by metro to Montmartre, Paris' highest hill, and topped by the Sacré-Cœur or Sacred Heart Basilica. The Roman Catholic church was built after the country was defeated in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and as a type of penance when the French government actually shot its own Socialist citizens who held out on Montmartre after the French leadership surrendered to the Prussians.

At the bottom of the hill to the basilica, was this lovely, old carousel but it seemed so out of place with the throngs of worshippers and other tourists climbing up the hundred plus steps to the place of worship.

The five-domed Byzantine-looking basilica took 44 years to build and was consecrated almost a century ago, in 1919, following the end of WW I.

These windows were dedicated to Joan of Arc.

Seeing this rose window reminded me of the one we'd seen our first day at Notre Dame Cathedral.

The church was beautiful but the adjacent toilettes were the most expensive ever at $1.75 a go!

Wandering around the Montmartre neighborhood, once the haven of struggling painters, poets and bohemian artists looking for cheap rent, was enjoyable but the area has become so gentrified with cutesy cafes and bakeries on almost every corner and throngs of tourists just like us wanting to get away from Paris' noisy boulevards. An hour or so was enough for us after stopping for a pick-me-up.

I loved the historical plaques on so many Parisian streets that gave us a sense of whom the street was named after and not simply the street name.

Who couldn't smile when seeing these painted barriers so people couldn't park there?!

Readers of our past blogs know we often visit cemeteries when traveling if they are considered particularly noteworthy, attractive, etc. Both of us had long known that Père Lachaise Cemetery was famous as the final resting place of so many famous people known to people the world over, and, in particular, to Jim Morrison of the Doors fame. After buying a map from the florist's across the street, we circled those names whose grave sites we wanted to stop at. That has always worked well in the past - here not so much as we had great difficulty finding some particular graves in the 'city of the dead' with a population, so to speak, of 70,000 souls.

Sadly, there was a barrier around Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde's resting place because prior visitors had caused damage which his heirs were responsible for.

While searching for other graves, we came across this section dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. This was dedicated to the French children who had perished in that horrific period.

This memorial honored the French victims at Dachau.

I felt like we could hear the victims' screams of terror and anguish at the Buchenwald memorial.

We knew we had found a grave belonging to someone famous when we saw a crowd of people around what turned out to be Edith Piaf's grave. Growing up even in English-speaking Canada, I was still very much aware of France's national chanteuse and one of the country's most widely known international stars.

Italian painter Modigliani's grave garnered far less attention so it was harder to find as the 100-acre cemetery's graves and tombs were crammed every which way.

Neither of us could understand why previous visitors had left an assortment of pens at his grave site - brushes, yes, I could understand, but why pens?  

We didn't know whose grave it was but we gave his family points for style!

Could have done without seeing the smokestacks at the Crematorium in the middle of the cemetery.

I don't think either of us have ever seen grave stones completely covered before with moss.

The 17th-century French playwright, Molière, had one of the few elevated graves.

Neither Steven nor I had known that famous mime Marcel Marceau was Jewish until we saw the Star of David on his grave.

Far too many graves were poorly tended to which I found very sad. This one, for instance, had its door missing and all sorts of trash inside.

We and so many others that day had come to pay homage to the great singer-songwriter Jim Morrison who died at the tender age of just 27 in 1971 in Paris where he'd been living.

Fans of the lead singer for The Doors had left sayings on narrow reeds on the tree nearest his grave. I was amazed that when we were there the fans looked as if they'd been barely born much before this century. What a testament to Morrison's musical talent all these later.

Since it had been a fairly hectic day, we found a bench in the shade to rest and read and ponder our time in Paris for well over an hour before being shooed out of the cemetery when it closed. As we've done elsewhere, we had 'closed' another cemetery!

Next post: Impressions and reflections on our few days in Paris and looking for comments from readers.

Posted on August 20th, 2018, from Yerevan, Armenia.