Wednesday: June 2

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe has served as a triumphant symbol of victory for French troops returning home from battle. Napoleon ordered the Arc de Triomphe's construction in 1809 to celebrate the triumph of the Republican armies. Unfortunately for Napoleon, his empire soon began to collapse. Consequently the Arc was not completed until much later in 1836. The Arc de Triomphe is decorated with friezes of battle scenes and carved with the names of Napoleon's victories. The Arc contains the tomb of the unknown soldier, the details of its history and the names of the fallen.

Sorry, it's a bit long but it is interesting and worth reading, in my opinion. And yes, I realize my pictures don't do it justice, but you will get an idea. Those are people on top to give you an idea of it's size. We walk to here almost every evening; its a marvelous structure. Enjoy!

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the Place de l'Étoile.  Officially, it is the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, as a smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel exists nearby. The triumphal arch honours those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. On the inside and the top of the arc there are all of the names of generals and wars fought. Underneath is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I.

The Arc is the linchpin of the historic axis (Axe historique) — a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, to the Grande Arche de la Défense. The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806. It set the tone for public monuments, with triumphant patriotic messages, until World War I.

The monument stands 50 m (160 ft) in height, 45 m (148 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. The large vault is -29.19 m (−95.8 ft) high and 14.62 m (48.0 ft) wide. The small vault is 18.68 m (61.3 ft) high and 8.44 m (27.7 ft) wide. It is the second largest triumphal arch in existence. Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, marking the end of hostilities in World War I, Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel.

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Picture placed here if you don't want to read it all. But it is worth reading. Continued after the picture.

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The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. The monument surmounts the hill of Chaillot at the center of a pentagon-shaped configuration of radiating avenues. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years, and in 1810 when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed. The architect Jean Chalgrin died in 1811, and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot. During the Bourbon Restoration, construction was halted and it would not be completed until the reign of King Louis-Philippe, in 1833–36 when the architects on site were Goust, then Huyot, under the direction of Héricart de Thury. Napoleon's body passed under it on 15 December 1840 on its way to its second and final resting place at the Invalides. The body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arch during the night of the 22 May 1885, prior to burial in the Panthéon.

The sword carried by the Republic in the Marseillaise relief broke off on the day, it is said, that the Battle of Verdun began in 1916. The relief was immediately hidden by tarpaulins to conceal the accident and avoid any undesired ominous interpretations.

On August 7, 1919, the Flying ace Charles Godefroy, succeeded passing by plane under the Arch. Jean Navarre, died on July 10 the same year near Villacoublay while training to carry out the same flight.

Following its construction, the Arc de Triomphe became the rallying point of French troops parading after successful military campaigns and for the annual Bastille Day Military Parade. Famous victory marches around or under the Arc have included the Germans in 1871, the French in 1918, the Germans in 1940, and the French and Allies in 1944 and 1945. A United States postage stamp from 1945 shows the Arc in the background as victorious American troops march down the Champs-Élysées and U.S. airplanes fly overhead.

In the prolongation of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a new Arch was built in 1982, completing the line of monuments that forms the Axe historique running through Paris. With the Arc de triomphe du Carrousel and the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, the Grande Arche de la défense is the third Arch built on the same perspective.

By the early 1960s, the monument had grown very blackened from coal soot and automobile exhaust, and during 1965–1966, it was thoroughly cleaned through bleaching. By 2007, some darkening was again apparent. The arc is planned to be bleached again in 2011.

In the attic above the richly sculptured frieze of soldiers are 30 shields engraved with the names of major Revolutionary and Napoleonic military victories. (The Battle of Fuentes de Onoro is described as a French victory, instead of the tactical draw). The inside walls of the monument list the names of 660 persons, among which 558 French generals of the First French Empire;] the names of those who died in battle are underlined. Also inscribed, on the shorter sides of the four supporting columns, are the names of the major victorious battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The battles which took place in the period between the departure of Napoleon from Elba to his final defeat at Waterloo are not included.

There was at the top of the Arc from 1882 to 1886, a monumental sculpture of Alexandre Falguière, "Le triomphe de la Révolution" (the Triumph of the Revolution), a charriot drawn by horses preparing "to crush Anarchy and Despotism", that remained only four years up there before falling in ruins.

Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War. Interred here on Armistice Day 1920, it has the first eternal flame lit in Western and Eastern Europe since the Vestal Virgins' fire was extinguished in the year 394. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified (now in both World Wars). The French model inspired the United Kingdom's tomb of The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. A ceremony is held there every 11 November on the anniversary of the armistice signed between France and Germany in 1918. It was originally decided on 12 November 1919 to bury the unknown soldier's remains in the Panthéon, but a public letter-writing campaign led to the decision to bury him beneath the Arc de Triomphe. The coffin was put in the chapel on the first floor of the Arc on 10 November 1920, and put in its final resting place on 28 January 1921. The slab on top carries the inscription ICI REPOSE UN SOLDAT FRANÇAIS MORT POUR LA PATRIE 1914–1918 ("Here lies a French soldier who died for the fatherland 1914–1918").

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy of the United States paid their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, accompanied by French President de Gaulle. After the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy remembered the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe and requested that an eternal flame be placed next to her husband's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. President de Gaulle went to Washington to attend the state funeral, and he was able to witness Jacqueline Kennedy lighting the eternal flame that was inspired by her visit to France.