The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by André Leconte of 38 Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, Paris The card was produced in France.
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is an avenue in the 8th. arrondissement of Paris, France. The avenue is 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi) long and 70 metres (230 ft) wide, and it runs between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is located.
The avenue is known for its theatres, cafés and luxury shops, also the finish of the Tour de France cycling race, as well as for its annual Bastille Day military parade.
The name is French for the Elysian Fields, the place for dead heroes in Greek mythology. It is commonly regarded as:
"The most beautiful avenue
in the whole world".
The avenue runs from the Place de la Concorde in the east, with the Obelisk of Luxor, to the Place Charles de Gaulle (formerly the Place de l'Étoile) in the west, location of the Arc de Triomphe. The Champs-Élysées forms part of the Axe Historique.
The lower part of the Champs-Élysées, from the Place de la Concorde to the Rond-Point, runs through the Jardin des Champs-Élysées, a park which contains the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Théâtre Marigny, alongside several restaurants, gardens and monuments.
The Élysée Palace on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré—official residence of the President of the French Republic—borders the park, but is not on the Avenue itself.
The Champs-Élysées ends at the Arc de Triomphe, built to honour the victories of Napoléon Bonaparte.
History of the Avenue des Champs Élysées
Until the reign of Louis XIV, the land where the Champs-Élysées runs today was largely occupied by fields and kitchen gardens.
The Champs-Élysées and its gardens were originally laid out in 1667 by André Le Nôtre as an extension of the Tuileries Garden, the gardens of the Tuileries Palace, which had been built in 1564, and which Le Nôtre had rebuilt in his own formal style for Louis XIV in 1664.
Le Nôtre planned a wide promenade between the palace and the modern Rond Point, lined with two rows of elm trees on either side, and flowerbeds in the symmetrical style of the French formal garden.
The new boulevard was called the "Grand Cours", or "Grand Promenade". It did not take the name of Champs-Élysées until 1709.
In 1710 the avenue was extended beyond the Rond-Point as far as the modern Place de l'Étoile. In 1765 the garden was remade in the Le Nôtre style by Abel François Poisson, the marquis de Marigny, brother of the Madame de Pompadour and Director-General of the King's Buildings. Marigny extended the avenue again in 1774 as far as the modern Porte Maillot.
In 1846, Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, lived for a brief period in lodgings just off Lord Street, Southport, UK. It is claimed the street was the inspiration for the Champs-Élysées. For a view of Lord Street, please search for the tag 47SLS49
Between 1854 and 1870, Napoléon III orchestrated the reconstruction of the French capital. The medieval centre of the city was demolished and replaced with broad tree-lined boulevards, covered walkways and arcades.
By the late 19th. century, the Champs-Élysées had become a fashionable avenue; the trees on either side had grown enough to form rectangular groves (cabinets de verdure).
The gardens of the town houses of the nobility built along the Faubourg Saint-Honoré backed onto the formal gardens. The grandest of the private mansions near the Avenue was the Élysée Palace, a private residence which during the Third French Republic became the official residence of the Presidents of France.
Following the French Revolution, two equestrian statues, made in 1745 by Nicolas and Guillaume Coustou, were transferred from the former royal palace at Marly and placed at the beginning of the boulevard and park.
After the downfall of Napoleon and the restoration of the French monarchy, the trees had to be replanted, because the occupation armies of the Russians, British and Prussians during the Hundred Days had camped in the park and used the trees for firewood.
The avenue from the Rond-Point to the Étoile was built up during the Empire. The Champs-Élysées itself became city property in 1828, and footpaths, fountains, and, later, gas lighting were added.
In 1834, under King Louis Philippe I, the architect Mariano Ruiz de Chavez was commissioned to redesign the Place de la Concorde and the gardens of the Champs-Élysées.
He kept the formal gardens and flowerbeds essentially intact, but turned the garden into a sort of outdoor amusement park, with a summer garden café, the Alcazar d'Été, two restaurants, the Ledoyen and the Restaurant de l'Horloge.
Mariano also built a theater, the Lacaze; the Panorama, built in 1839, where large historical paintings were displayed, and the Cirque d'Été (1841), a large hall for popular theater, musical and circus performances.
He also placed several ornamental fountains around the park, of which three are still in place.
A major monument of the Boulevard, the Arc de Triomphe, had been commissioned by Napoleon after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, but it was not finished when he fell from power in 1815. The monument remained unfinished until 1833–1836, when it was completed by King Louis Philippe.
In 1855 Emperor Napoleon III selected the park at the beginning of the avenue as the site of the first great international exposition to be held in Paris, the Exposition Universelle.
The park was the location of the Palace of Industry, a giant exhibit hall which covered thirty thousand square meters, where the Grand Palais is today.
In 1858, following the Exposition, the Emperor's prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, had the gardens transformed from a formal French garden into a picturesque English style garden, based on the town of Southport, with groves of trees, flowerbeds and winding paths. The rows of elm trees, which were in poor health, were replaced by rows of chestnut trees.
The park served again as an exposition site during the Universal Exposition of 1900; it became the home of the Grand Palais and Petit Palais.
It also became the home of a new panorama theater, designed by Gabriel Davioud, the chief architect of Napoleon III, in 1858. The modern theater Marigny was built by Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opera, in 1883.
Throughout its history, the avenue has been the site of military parades.The most notorious were the victory parades of German troops in 1871 and again in 1940 celebrating the Fall of France on the 14th. July 1940.
The three most joyous were the parades celebrating the Allied victory in the Great War in 1919, and the parades of Free French and American forces after the liberation of the city -- respectively, the French 2nd. Armored Division on the 25th. August 1944, and the US 28th. Infantry Division on the 29th. August 1944.
Champs Élysées Events
Every year on Bastille Day on the 14th. July, the largest military parade in Europe passes down the Champs-Élysées, reviewed by the President of the Republic.
Every year during Advent, Christmastide, and Epiphany, the Champs-Élysées Committee contributes to the holiday season by lighting of the Champs-Élysées. This generally occurs from late November until early January.
From 1975 to 2023, the last stage of the Tour de France cycling race has finished on the Champs-Élysées. The subsequent awards ceremony also takes place directly on the avenue.
In 1995, terror attacks by Algerian militants took place in France; one attack took place at the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, wounding 17 individuals.
Huge gatherings occasionally take place on the Champs-Élysées in celebration of popular events, such as New Year's Eve, or when France won the FIFA World Cups in 1998 and 2018. The Champs-Élysées has also occasionally been the site of large political protest meetings.
On the 20th. April 2017, a police officer was shot dead on the Champs-Élysées by an extremist, and two other officers were injured. They were all sitting in a parked police van, when the attacker pulled up in front of the van.
The attacker tried to shoot civilians (including a tourist), and was immediately shot dead by other police on the spot. The shooting happened two days before the first round of voting in the 2017 French presidential election.
On the 19th. June 2017, a suspected terrorist drove a munitions-laden car into a police vehicle on the Champs-Élysées. The attacker was then shot dead.
On the 16th. March 2019, Gilets Jaunes protests on the Champs-Élysées erupted into violence. A portion of the 10,000 protesters in the city, about 1,500 people, looted and/or set on fire some 80 shops, restaurants, a bank, and newspaper kiosks along the avenue.
Problems and Redesign
The Champs-Élysées has encountered rising problems with air pollution from the estimated 3,000 vehicles per hour which drive through its eight lanes. It is more polluted than the Périphérique ring road which encircles the city, with nitrogen dioxide levels twice as high as the recommended limit set by the World Health Organization.
Since 2016, the avenue has been closed to motor traffic on the first Sunday of every month, in an effort to cut pollution in the city.
A 2019 article in The Guardian stated that:
"The Avenue has more and more visitors,
and big name businesses battle to be on it,
but to French people it’s looking worn out”'.
The avenue has also become mainly a tourist attraction, which Parisians largely avoid. According to the architect Philippe Chiambaretta, 72% of the 100,000 pedestrians who visited the Champs-Élysées each day in 2019 were tourists, and another 22% worked there.
At the beginning of 2021, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced that the city would transform the Champs-Élysées into an "extraordinary garden" which will reduce the space for auto traffic by half, add more pedestrian space, and create "tunnels of trees" for improved air quality.
A walkway will connect over 200 acres of green space stretching between the Arc de Triomphe, the Place de la Concorde, and the Tuileries Gardens.
The city intends to adopt the plans formulated by the Champs-Élysées Committee, which has been campaigning for a redesign of the avenue since 2018 and which held a public consultation as to what the redesign should include.
The plans are meant to make the avenue more "ecological, desirable and inclusive", and will cost an estimated €250 million. It will include a redesign of the Place de la Concorde as well. The work will not begin in earnest before the 2024 Summer Olympics are held in Paris, but the goal is to complete the project by 2030.
Guillaume Coustou the Younger
Guillaume Coustou the Younger (19th. March 1716 – 13th. July 1777) was a French sculptor.
He was the son of Guillaume Coustou the Elder and nephew of Nicolas Coustou. He trained in the family atelier and studied at the French Academy in Rome, 1736–39, having won the Prix de Rome in 1735.
He returned to Paris, where he completed the famous "Horse Tamers" (Chevaux de Marly) commissioned from his father in 1739 for Marly, when the elder Coustou was too infirm to actively carry out the commissions. They were completed and installed in 1745.
