Your Video Tour of the Champs Elysees!

Come follow me on my route of exploration down the Champs Elysees, which it appears I never got around to describing. So, we'll go through it together.

We'll be starting our tour at the world-famous Arc de Triomphe after getting off the Metro at the Charles de Gaulle Etoile stop (Metro line 1). Here is an underview of the Arc:



Along with that, you should take a look at the nightmarish roundabout that surrounds the Arc. While pretty much every street I see makes me glad I don't have to drive in France, this thing really seals the deal:



All right, with that out of the way, we can now move over to the Champs Elysees and begin our tour. Anyway, since you're me, you won't find the thing all that impressive. I mean, it's a nice street and all, but not being particularly impressed by high fashion, you'll find it really doesn't have all that much to offer you. Weeks later, our tourguide, Steve Sawyer, would draw a comparison between the Champs Elysees and Michigan Ave. that would remind me of my original feelings that the two really aren't that different. Anyway, again, being me, you'll stop in a French Virgin Megastore and that's about it. Here's a peek at the street, just a little before you go into the Virgin, right by the George V (line 1) stop, which is also right by Queen, which Matt calls "the straightest gay bar in the world" and the theater where I saw the HD reissue of Suspiria with grossly amped colors one fine Sunday morn. The street:



After all the time you waste in the Virgin (stupid fool!), it will be nighttime by the time you leave. You'll conclude the tour by walking the rest of the way down the Champs Elysees, where you will end at the Place de la Concorde, which was a sight of a lot of revolutionary beheadings but is now mostly a ton of monuments (and a Ferris Wheel) all crammed together into a big square. Here it is at night (there will be other pictures and perhaps videos from the day later):



All right, you've been walking and looking for hours now, and you're fucking tired. Hop on the Concorde Metro stop (line 1--have you figured out it runs down the Champs Elysees yet?) and take that to Chatlet, where you'll transfer to the 11 and be conducted happily home.