Champs-Élysées

Landscape architect André Le Nôtre first laid out a tree-lined promenade along this route in 1667 as an extension of the Tuileries Gardens, and the avenue took its current name — 'Elysian Fields,' after the paradise of Greek mythology — in the early 18th century. Its transformation into a grand ceremonial and commercial boulevard accelerated through the 19th century, cementing its role as the traditional route for state occasions: Bastille Day military parades, the finish of the Tour de France, and state funeral processions have all passed along it.

Today the upper stretch, near the Arc de Triomphe, is dominated by international luxury flagship stores, car showrooms and cinemas, while the lower section, closer to Place de la Concorde, runs through the more garden-like Carré Marigny, with Belle Époque theatres and the Grand and Petit Palais just off to the side. It remains, for better or worse, one of the most visited and most commercially generic stretches in central Paris — a place many Parisians themselves regard as tourist-focused rather than a genuine slice of local life.