Place De La Concorde

It's hard to tell that this is the place where more than 1,300 heads rolled in the years after the French Revolution. These days, it's a huge traffic circle, or square, that joins the rue de Rivoli, the rue Royale, and the avenue des Champs Elysées to the left bank via the Pont de la Concorde.

Place de la Concorde, looking north toward the rue Royale.

The place was orginally constructed in the mid-eighteenth century to commemorate king Louis XV and included an equestrian statue of the monarch at its center. The statue was pulled down in 1792 and the place became known as Place de la Révolution. Not long after, the guillotine went up.

The place was renamed Condorde in 1795 as part of the nation's attempt to move forward after the bloody revolution. Today the center of the place is adorned with two monumental fountains and a three thousand year old obelisk, a gift from the Egyptians, that was transported from Luxor in the nineteenth century.

I don't know which is more thrilling: driving around the place or negotiating it on foot!