Trips To Paris

One of the most important squares in Paris is Place de la Concorde. It is also the largest square of the city, with a surface of 86 400 meters. It borders Avenue Champs-Élysées at its eastern end and is situated in the eighth arrondissement.

In the middle of the square raises the Obelisk of Luxor, from the Ramses II ‘s reign. The Obelisk is beautifully decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphics depicting the pharaoh’s life and activity. It was a gift from the Egyptian Government to the French state in the 19^th century. Although the gift included a second Obelisk, the latter was two heavy to be carried to France, so was kept in Egypt. In the 1990s the French president Francois Mitterrand offered it back to Egypt.

In Place de la Concorde there are also two beautiful fountains, very famous during Louis-Philippe’s time and still considered a symbol of the Parisian fountains. Their designer was a student at the Beaux-Art School, named Jacques-Ignace Hittorff, who had as tutor Charles Percier, a Neoclassical designer.