This afternoon brought many surprises to the women in our trip, shopping time. The Avenue des Champs-Elysées is probably the most famous avenue in the world. There were endless rows of high end shopping stores. You can find them all here, with the name like Louis Vuitton, Channel, Christian Dior, Banana Republic, Hugo Boss, and a lot more. This is the real shopping heaven for people with money and the tastes of luxury.
There must be thousands of shops on both side of the street. There's no famous brand that you can't find here. The buildings all line up in a straight row. The stores are well designed and presented to entice customers. In between, there are plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, and electronic stores. The side walks are carefully created with shade of trees on both sides of this grand avenue. They are large enough for thousands of shoppers to feel like being in an outdoor mall.
Champs-Elysées Aveue is extended all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. The arch was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate his victories. And to my surprise, I learned during the trip that he was ousted before the arch was completed. The Arc de Triomphe is engraved with names of generals who commanded French troops during Napoleon's regime.
At the top of the arch are 30 shields, each of them bears the name of one of Napoleon's successful battles.
Below the arch is the Grave of the Unknown Soldiers, honoring the many who died during the first World War. There's a torch sit right in the middle of the ground of the arch. The area is off limit to pedestrians.
Make sure you take one of the underpasses to the arch, it is too dangerous to try and cross the street. There is no elevator in the arch, so be prepared to walk up 234 steps, and the waiting line is normally very long during the peak of tourist season, the summer. But once you get up there, the pay off is well worth the wait. The view of the surrounding area is breathtaking.
We visited a few more historical and famous places before leaving Paris for a new destination in our trip. Place de la Concord, Place Vendôme, Grand Palais, were just to name a few.
On the Seine River boat tour, we also saw the Palais de la Cité, and a few other magnificent buildings that I did not remember their names.
Tomorrow we would be heading to the most known city of the world, one of the world's major centers of international diplomacy, having served as the site of the initial headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva Switzerland. It had a very important part of Viet Nam's history during the Viet Nam war between 1954 to 1975.
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