Champs – Elysees Avenue travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises, spa and resorts

Between Concorde and Etoile, is the emblematic section of a perspective that extends from Louvre Pyramid to La defense. The first steps of this “glorious way”, an obligatory passage for patriotic parades, were however modest. Lined with undergrowth the avenue reached the current site of place de l’Etoile in 1724. A fashionable place to walk, the gardens were devastated at the fall of the Empire. They regained their splendour around 1840: candelabras, fountains, creamy pavilions, landscaping with flowers and copses date from this period of balls and theatres. It was one hundred years later that rapid development occured when affluence spread to the west of the capital.

The avenue was then adorned with prestigious palaces, cafes and restaurant terraces and cinemas – joined today by ready-to-wear fashion stores and high-tech showrooms. Everything can be found on the “Champs”: films, dresses, lunch, cotton and compresses, racing cars, yoghurts and fresh vegetables, book, CD’s, perfume… from morning to midnight, sometimes 24 hours a day, often 7 days a week.