'Okay everybody, we're walking, we're walking' ;)
You can see the Louvre in the background and this is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (NOT THE Arc de Triomphe, that will come later ;) and was built between 1806-1808 by the Emperor Napoleon I on the model of the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome. It was commissioned to commemorate France's military victories in 1805.
As we began our walk through the Tuilieries (a garden named from the tile kilns or tuileries which previously occupied the site) we saw French cops on horses....
Another view of the gardens, towards the Louvre...
Fancy-schmancy lightposts on the 'Place de la Concorde'. During the French Revolution the area was renamed "Place de la Révolution". In a grim reminder to the nobility of a gruesome past, when the "Place de Grève" was a site where the nobility and members of the bourgeoisie were entertained watching convicted criminals being dismembered alive, the new revolutionary government erected the guillotine there. The first notable to be executed at the Place de la Révolution was King Louis XVI, on January 21, 1793. Other important people guillotined there, often in front of cheering crowds, were Queen Marie Antoinette and Robespierre. The guillotine was most active during the "Reign of Terror", in the summer of 1794, when in a single month more than 1,300 people were executed.
And here is the plaque that commemorates where the guillotine stood and Louis and Marie Antoinette's death. The guillotine was most active during the "Reign of Terror", in the summer of 1794, when in a single month more than 1,300 people were executed.
'A Tale of Two Cities', ugh....
There is another view of Place de la Concorde with its obelisk. The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II. It once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, offered the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk to France in 1831. The obelisk arrived in Paris on December 21, 1833. King Louis-Philippe had it placed in the centre of Place de la Concorde on October 25, 1836. The red granite column rises 23 metres high, including the base, and weighs over 250 tonnes.
