Triumph, mostly

This morning David and Hugo took off early to the boulangerie and came back about an hour later with a couple of baguettes. They'd also bought pains au chocolat, but had already eaten them:( I consoled myself with chocolate muesli...

Today we took the metro to les Tuilleries, the park outside the Louvre, and walked through the park and up the Champs Elysees, to the Arc de Triomphe. At the end of the park there is Place de la Concorde, where they used to keep the guillotine, but where there is now a couple of incredible fountains, and the Obelisk, which was taken from the temple at Luxor, in Egypt, and is an astonishing 3300 years old. The heiroglyphics on it praise Ramses II. We also found a little marionette theatre, but it wasn't opened today. We might get there, later.

About halfway up the Champs Elysees, we needed some sustenance so we bought burgers, fries and drinks at Quick. Total cost - about 37 euros, and the burgers were quite good. The photo shows the family engaging in some post-luncheon arm wrestling and thumb wars. I found the Champs Elysees a bit soulless, after the wonderful historical places we'd been.

The Arc de Triomphe, was of course, brilliant. There is some great media stuff on the middle level, and the view at the top is amazing.

What really got to me, though, was a large plaque built into the ground, beneath the tower, with a quote from General de Gaulle in 1940, after France was taken by Hitler. It was very moving. Basically, three days after the French government agreed to Hitler's takeover, de Gaulle got permission from Winston Churchill to send out a message of resistance and hope.

The BBC didn't tape it, but you can read it here I found it very moving. When I came home I looked it up to make sure I'd understood it perfectly in French, and I read of Hitler's tour through Paris after the takeover. He had planned to build Berlin into an incredible city, which would make Paris look insignificant, so he said he wouldn't bother to destroy Paris. Thank goodness.


This evening I went with David and Rachel as they completed their nightly Champs de Mars running ritual. I sat on a bench and did some writing. It's 9:50 pm and it's not remotely dark. So strange...