JULY 1: L'Arc de Triomphe

So this morning started with a placement exam for the class I'll be taking at the Sorbonne. It consisted of a written portion and a oral portion. Let's just say that for the written part I'm really good at filling out the paperwork information part. The oral exam was fine. Thank goodness for the kind patience of the French. I'm pretty sure I'll be in the beginner class (A1) which will be very helpful for learning communication skills in french. *Just found out I'm in A1.*

We all meet up at a café after the exam and I had another café latte (coffee with milk) and a friend gave me some baguette with butter and jam. After we all dispersed I took a break to prepare for our next visit, L'Arc de Triomphe.

Before we left to L'Arc de Triomphe we had a spectacular presentation about Haussmann. Haussmann apparently redesigned Paris to the way it is today. Some of the things I learned were:

• Paris was designed with 3 main roads in place. One running north to south, another east to west, and the last one along la seine.
• Everything of the old Paris was knocked down and replaced. Haussmann even destroyed his own home.
• There were many mixed feelings on his designs. The negative ones argued that he was getting ride of history by destroying the ancient medieval buildings.
• Famous author Victor Hugo was one such critic.
• Haussmann was asked to resign many times but refused, though he was later fired.

When we finally went to L'Arc de Triomphe we walked down Avenue des Champs-Élysées which is a super big shopping street with some of the top design stores. I even took a picture of the Louis Vuitton store for my dog King Louie Vuitton.

Reaching the arc itself was wonderful. It stands in the middle of a super large roundabout and you have to take a tunnel underneath to get over to it.

Myself and another walked all the way around it then went over to the little island itself. There I saw got to see the details to the sculptures with my favorite being the Joan of Arc with soldiers underneath her.

Some facts about L'Arc de Triomphe include:

• Napoleon Bonaparte had it made after the designs of the Romans.
• There are 174 battles inscribed and over 640 soldiers. The soldiers with a line under their name died in battle.
• L’Arc stands at 50 meters tall and 45 meters long.

After walking around up close we went up to the top which was only possible by walking up a very winding staircase.

Once at the top there was spectacular view with the Avenue des Champs-Élysées shopping street and of the Eiffel Tower. Inside there was a mini replica of L'Arc de Triomphe with all the names even inscribed on it.

There was also a photo gallery with soldiers uniforms through time. There galley was placed in the location of where the unknown soldier was.

After returning to the ground I waited around and got to see a ceremony of the unknown soldier. There were flags of others french countries in attendance. It was very interesting.

Overall it was a very good day. Tomorrow we go to Chartres. I can't wait.