The Champs-Elysées 1948
Excerpted from France, Paris, and the Provinces
by Roger Roumagnac,
Translated by Marguerite Bigot and Madeleine Blaess;
Paris Kiosque - March 1998 - Volume 4, Number 3
Editor's Note: In this piece, we look at a memory of Paris
50 years old. Originally published in the book
France, Paris, and the Provinces (McGraw-Hill, 1948, New York.), it evokes
images of Paris that are part of the foundation of how we look at
the city today.
Just try to imagine fields and market-gardens stretching out as
far as the eye can see, with a big village in the distance. This
village was called Le Roule and Parisians used to go there to buy
their poultry. These fields and market-gardens are today the
Champs-Elysées. It is unquestionably one of the most
highly-rated districts in Paris. For the last two centuries,
Paris has been expanding westwards. It was Napoleon who gave
rise to this extraordinary exodus when he build the Arc de
Triomphe de l'Etoile. The fashionable new districts were soon
covered with massive wealthy buildings. Cinemas, cafés
and lovely girls - whims of a day - grace this wide avenue which
leads nowhere in particular.
The Champs-Elysées, the Voie Triomphale, and famouse perspective
stretching from the Louvre to the Etoile, passes by the Place de
la Concorde, one of the
vastest squares in the world.
It was designed in 1754 by Gabriel, the famouse architect, in the
reign of Louis XV. During the Revolution of 1789, the guillotine
was erected in the square for the execution of Louis XVI, of
Marie-Antoinette, of the Revolutionist Danton, and of many others.
It was later given the name of Place de la Concorde, to blot out
the memory of the gruesome spectacle of which it had been the
scene.
The obelisk from Luxor stands in the middle of the square. It
is 75 feet high, and weighs 250 tons. The hieroglyphics on this
monolith recount the glorious episodes of the youth of the
Pharaoh Ramses II, thirteen centuries before Christ. This
obelisk, also called Cleopatra's needle, was presented by
Mehemet Ali and was brought from Egypt in 1836. It has replaced
the statue of Liberty which in turn had taken the place of a
statue of Louis XV, erected in 1763.
Two elegant buildings border the square on the North and form
which it a most harmonious ensemble.
One of these buildings was formerly occupied by the
Ministère de la Marine (Admiralty), and the other by the
Automobile Clube and the Hôtel Crillon.
They were both built by Gabriel between 1760 and 1772.
Hôtel Crillon, one of the most luxurious hotels in Paris,
has always been the favourite sojourn of monarchs, diplomats,
and other guests of rand and importance. Headquarters of the
international diplomats, this hotel possesses three magnificent
reception rooms of different periods: The Salon des
Aigles, the Salon Louis XIV and the Salon des
Batailles, where many an important interview has taken place.
The Champs-Elysées are on a straight line with the Palais du Louvre and the
Tuileries Gardens.
The famous Marly's horses mark the entrance to the Champs-Elysées.
These two
sculptures by Guillaume Coustou (1735) were originally intended
for the watering place in the Château de Marly. They were
installed in their present place in 1795.
The famouse Champs-Elysées avenue gives the impression of a huge
quadrilateral of verdure. With its popular Punch and Judy show,
its children playing about the green, and idlers basking in the
afternoon sun, it is in fact much more a park than an avenue.
Further to the right, in the direction of the Avenue Gabriel,
there is a quaint gathering of chairs and tables where
connoisseurs exhibit their collections of postage-stamps. This
corner is known to Parisians as the Postage-Stamp Exchange or
Carré Marigny.
Across the green, and amid chestnut trees, gourmets will find
some of the world's most reputed restaurants : the Pavillon
de l'Elysée was built for the Exhibition of 1900,
whilst the fashionable Restaurant Le Doyen was up to 1789 but a
dairy farm surrounded by pastures.
The Cours la Reine, along the Seine, and the Avenue Gabriel,
lined with all the gardens of the private residences fronting
the Faubourg Saint Honoré, seem to add still further to
the green surface of the Champs-Elysées.
The promenade Cours la Reine dates from Marie de Medicis (1616).
It was then surrounded by gates and reserved only for the
intimates of the Court. This park was at the time the reputed
rendez-vous of the elegant and libertine classes, just as the
Pont Neuf was the favourite promenade of the common people.
At that time, when one possessed a coach, the thing to do was
show off
on the Cours la Reine by putting one's horses through their
paces. The chroniclers of the time have a quaint way of
dwelling on the numerous accidents and collisions which sent
elegant ladies biting the dust, causing them to make such
indiscreet exhibitions of their charms as were certainly not
intended for publicity.
The monuments mark the site on which stood the Exhibition of
1900 : the Pont Alexandre III, the Grand Palais, and the Petit
Palais.
The Pont Alexandre III is a steel structure, crossing the Seine
with a single span. Its decoration representing an
extraordinary aquatic fauna, is of particular interest. For,
among other things, there are crabs, crayfish, conger-eels,
red-mullets, grey-mullets, hog-fish, sword-fish, sharks, frogs,
pikes, carps, and nearly a thousand scallops. The whole is
surrounded by sea-weeds, reeds, mermaids, lions, cupids and
genii of all kinds.
One of its sculptures has been the cause of disappointment for
many a Parisian and many a visitor. It is a crab which appears
to be on the point of being detached from the bronze group, and
nearly everyone who looks at it is tempted to try and take it
away. But though the crab has become highly polished through
being so much handled, it still holds on.
This passion for collecting public objects is, moreover,
characteristic of the Parisians. After the Revolution, when
statues of kings were knocked down from their pedistals, and
statues of saints were beheaded in the churches there were
always citizen about ready to take home a nose of Saint Louis or
a foot from Louis XIV. This is the only explanation that may be
found for the presence of some of these tropies in various
museums today.
The Czar Nicholas II and the President Emile Loubet laid the
foundation stone of the Pont Alexandre II which is still
considered by Parisians as being the most beautiful in Paris.
Architecture has since evolved, and one cannot help but smile
today at the profusion of allegoric figures decorating the Grand
Palais, or at the composite style of the Petit Palais.
The International Horse-Show, the Annual Art Exhibition, and
temporary Art Exhibitions as well as the Motor Show are held
every year in the Grand Palais.
The Musée de la Découverte has since 1937 occupied
part of the Palais' gigantic galleries.
Les Ambassadeurs, one of the most elegant theatres in
Paris stands at the entrance of the Champs-Elysées near the Place de la
Concorde.
The Theatre de Champs-Elysées, on the avenue Montaigne was built in
1913, in ferro-concrete. It is one of the first specimens of
the sober modern architecture. This theatre, composed of three
superimposed halls, was for a long time more particulary devoted
to Ballets and various other dance recitals.
The Rond Point divides the Champs-Elysées into two distinct parts:
one, which we have already seen, with its Park, its Palais and
its theatres; and the other, a modern business street with shops
and office buildings.
It is interesting to recall that in 1800 only six houses emerged
from the fields.
The cinema industry is today firmly established in the district.
The elegant cafés bordering the Champs-Elysées are frequented chiefly
by professionals or would be professionals. The atmosphere in
those cafés, with their innumerable nooks, their soft
chairs and banquettes, leads itself exceptionally well to
gossip, to daydreams, and to the building up of fantastic
projects which more often than not never materialise. As if
glued to thier seats, unemployed assistants, operators,
crowd and other hopefuls may be seen in the Café
Select or the Colisée at all times of the day egerly
watching for the entrance of directors and producers. Beautiful
women await there the fateful glance that is to discover
them and start them on a brilliant career, and keep staring at
anyone talking scenario, film, or camera.
Fifty film companies have elected domicile in the streets
neighbouring the Champs-Elysées. No International star would dream of going
through Paris without paying a visit to the Champs-Elysées.
Every large building even possesses its own projection rooms,
usually hired by the hour, where cinema companies try out their
strips.
Films are made in Joinville, in Billancourt, on the
Buttes-Chaumont, in Montmartre... and also on the Champs-Elysées. There is
a large studio for the shooting of films in the very heart of
the Champs-Elysées as you may see for yourself. Just push a certain door,
rue François I and if you are lucky, as we once were, you
may happen to enter upon an outdoor scene. A 134 ft by 59 ft
forest has just grown on the big stage through the sheer
magic of designers, and is flooded with sun rays emitted by the
electric meter humming at 6,000 ampères. A love scene is
being enacted amid spulchral silence, broken only by the tender
conversation between the young leading may and the star.
How rapt they are despite the many onlookers.
a little later, producer, director and actors will gather at
Fouquet's to chat quietly over their apéritif. Stage
designers will then take the studio in hand and work the whole
night through to prepare for the next day's shooting.
The rue Marignan close by is a modern street that has replaced
the winter garden where Beethoven's symphonies were heard in
France for the first time.
The establishment of the film industry, of vast hotels, of
broadcasting stations and cinemas, has naturally attracted the
commerce de luxe which took possession of windows and
shops along the Avenue, from the Rond Point to the Etoile, where
everything from automobiles down to tatting may be found.
Practically every shop in the Arcades specialises in ladies
lingerie and articles de Paris.
In the evening, l'heure de l'apéritif (cocktail hour) brings a rush of business for the Grand
Café du Rond Point, the Marignan, the Triomphe and the Brasserie Hungaria, when promenaders and
businessmen go in to while away the time until dinner.
The Arc de Triomphe dominates all this. Nearly 64 ft high, 148 ft wide, and 72 ft thick, it has now become a
mausoleum. Under its vaults the
Flamme du Souvenir keeps watch over the Unknown Soldier.
Ericted to perpetuate the glory of Napoleon's army, its construction on the hill known as the Colline du Roule
had been decided by the Emperor in 1860. The hill was lowered by 33 ft for the purpose. The Arc was completed
under Louis-Philippe.
Twelve concentric avenues radiate in all directions from the Place de l'Etoile. The
Avenue de la Grande Armée is the continuation of the Champs-Elysées. The Avenue Foch,
formerly Avenue du Bois, is a magnificient drive bordered with lawns and luxurious private residences.
It leads to the Bois de Boulogne, the biggest park in Paris, with spacious lakes,
sports grounds, and beautiful promenades cutting across a landscape of forest.
The Avenue Hoche leads to the Parc Monceau and to the Russian Church in rue Daru, where most impressive services
may occasionally be heard with music and choirs of exceptional quality.
France, Paris, and the Provinces - text by Roger Roumagnac,
Translated by Marguerite Bigot and Madeleine Blaess;
Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill, 1948, New York.
