Day 1 Paris – 8th Arrondissement (Part 3 of 3): Place de la Concorde

---

---

After walking down the Av. des Champs-Élysées I arrived at the Place de la Concorde.

Unfortunately the fountains weren’t working (it was winter…) but the sculptures were magnificent, as was the Obelisk. There is also a ferris wheel, which I thought was really out of place. The lamps were also really cool.

To the north I could see the Église de la Madeleine between the identical buildings on the north of the Place, along Rue Royale.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755 as a moat-skirted octagon, and named Place Louis XV to honor the king at that time. During the French Revolution it was renamed Place de la Révolution, where several important people were executed. It was renamed Place de la Concorde after the revolution in July 1830. The obelisk is one of two the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. Both fountains had the same form: a stone basin; six figures of tritons or naiads; six seated allegorical figures; four statues of different forms of genius in arts or crafts.

---