Honestly, I haven't heard of Arc de Triomphe. Until I watched am episode of the Korean variety show, Grandpa over Flowers, which had the grandpas, after a long day in the city, watch sunset from the top of the Arc. I knew I had to visit it. (It's also covered in the Paris Museum Pass, how convenient!)
Because the Arc is smack in the center of a roundabout with roads radiating from it, I did wonder how to get to it, much less to the top.
And the only way is down, down, down before you can go up, up, up.
Now we are right under the Arc.
Inside, there are some triumphant artifacts,
a view of level 1,
a map of the Arc,
and a model of the Arc.
The entablature which crowns the Arc de Triomphe is particularly impressive and rich is sculpted decor; it conceals a room, planned from the outset of the project to serve as a museum room.
In 1828, perfect horizontality was favoured for the emtablature (without vertical drops), and it was decorated with a figurative frieze running all around the monument, just above, the attic takes inspiration from the classical style, with alternating triglyphs and metopes. The triglyphs here suggest pilasters decorated with swords, between which are shields engraved with the names of military victories.
At the top of the monument, the rectilinear cornice is surmounted by a ridge serving as a parapet and decorated with heads of Medusa and palmettes.
<<Returning home, you will pass under triumphal arches>> Napoleon to his troops, 2 December 1805, on the evening of the victory at Austerlitz.
The arch was initially planned for La Bastille. But the far end of the Champs-Elysees, opened under Louis XIV by the gardener Andre Le Notre, offered an ideal position, and one as yet undeveloped in 1806, minister Champagny persuaded Napoleon that <<A triumphal arch would provide the most majestic and picturesque culmination of the superb view from the Imperial Palace of Les Tuileries... Every visitor entering Paris would be struck by it...>>
Its purpose as a monument dedicated to heroes and historical remembrance (697 names and 174 battles are inscribed on the arch) was further extended in 1921 with the burial of the unknown soldier, and continues today with the daily ceremony tending to the external flame.
In parallel, a more pacifistic use has developed for this towering monument which offers a panoramic view over Paris.
And panoramic, it is indeed with the radiating roads from the Arc.
But the stairs it took to get up and down!
Part of the daily ceremony tending to the eternal flame.
Triumphal arches are not unique to Parisians, but this is my first visit atop one. It's humbling to visit such monuments but hopefully people don't find it necessary to build more such arches.
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