Champs Elysees

A walk down the Avenue des Champs Elysees is scorned by many tourist publications because the ultra-wide boulevarde has been hijacked by Virgin Megastore, Gap, McDonalds and other non-Parisian brand names, but it is irresistable anyway.

We started at the Metro station Argentine, so we could see the arch of La Defence in one direction, and Napoleon's grand Arc de Triomphe in the other. Mike had visited La Defence some years ago on business, and our family has also been to the Arc in 1980. The Arc is bigger and more dramatic than we remembered, such a stupendous construction!

The traffic around the Arc is legendary, and its amazing how the vehicles manage to avoid each other when negotiating which of the twelve exits they want to take. We notice that the rule seems to be that vehicles entering the roundabout have right of way over vehicles in it. Maybe it's a simple give way to the right rule? Regardless, it's the opposite to the rules we are used to.

The walk towards the Louvre was devoid of excitement, but was pleasant enough. The only places we stopped at were the car museums for Peugeot and Citroen. We missed the Renault museum, which we remember from 1980. The concept cars in these places look magnificent but I doubt if we'll be seeing any of them in the streets of Sydney.


The most interest in this walk arises from sidetrips to the Palais de la Decouverte (a magnificent structure now devoted to a hands-on science museum, and accordingly, full of school groups), the Grand Palais (complete with huge glass roof, getting ready for a railway exhibition which we will go to later on so we can see inside this wonderful building), the Petit Palace (just renovated, truly stunning, great cafe, now containing modern art and displays of period Paris), and the Pont Alexandre III (supposedly the most decorative bridge across the Seine, and certainly no disappointment).

At the end of the Champs is the famous Obelisque de Luxor in the Place de la Concorde. Here, there is a large ferris wheel, fantastically lit in the night, perpendicular to and exactly in the line between the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre, so (no doubt) giving a great view to both. The stunning photo of the Eiffel Tower and searchlight is taken from the Place de la Concorde.

This particular spot is very popular with tourists, and hence with gypsies who ask "do you speak english?" Saying "non" makes them go away, but if you say yes, you then cop a written plea for money.


The Jardin des Tuilieries which separates the Place de la Concord from the Louvre may be wonderful in summer, but now, in winter, it is a desolate and stark landscape. Children play in the mid afternoon half light in these gardens, but they look so sad rugged up against the cold. Even the ponies, there for children's rides seem to be muttering to each other, wishing, no doubt, that they were in Sydney!

Even at midday, in December, the sun in Paris is well to the south, and Mike's estimate is that it never gets over about 20 degrees above the horizon. With its tall buildings and narrow streets, this means great swathes of Paris must never see the sun in winter. Our apartment, with lots of big windows on two sides, faces north, and so we don't catch the sun either, although some reflects off adjacent windows.

That said, the weather has changed here somewhat in the last two days - it's got warmer! OUr interpretation of the weather forecasts on TV didn't predict this for us, but we've now seen temperatures as high as 10C, compared with the 2-3C max previously. Surprisingly, this warming up has not been accompanied by any instability - the sun has been out (but low) and the sky nearly cloudless.