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The Champs Elysees are viewed ahead of the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris, France. | Photo credit: Getty Images
Paris has chosen the iconic Champs-Elysees avenue and the historic Place de la Concorde to host the opening ceremony of the Summer Paralympics on Wednesday (August 28, 2024).
This prestigious route through the 8th arrondissement, west of central Paris, is lined with cafés, palaces and luxury shops and connects the Arc de Triomphe in the west to the Place de la Concorde in the east in a straight line.
The Champs-Elysees
Thousands of people visit the two-kilometre (one mile) long tree-lined street and wide sidewalks every day.
It has long been a place of festivities and popular celebrations for the French.
It was here in 1960 that American actress Jean Seberg appeared in Jean-Luc Godard’s famous new wave film “Breathless,” which sold out copies of the New York Herald Tribune.
A popular parade will be held here on Wednesday, which will be open to all and will involve more than 180 delegations and 4,400 Para-Olympians from around the world.
France has celebrated two football World Cup victories there, the traditional military parade on July 14, the Bastille Day national holiday, and the finish of the Tour de France bicycle race.
Millions of Parisians and tourists gather there to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Once farmland and fallow land, this route began to take shape when Louis XIV’s city planner first linked the Louvre to the Tuileries Gardens in the mid-17th century.
At one end of the avenue is the Arc de Triomphe, built by the French emperor Napoleon to honour France’s war dead, and inaugurated in 1836.
France’s World War II leader General Charles de Gaulle chose it for his triumphant return from exile on August 26, 1944, following the liberation of Paris from the Nazis.
However, the iconic route has seen scenes of unrest before. In 2018, when “yellow vest” anti-government protesters stormed the Arc de Triomphe and vandalised shops, police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon.
However, rising rents and declining sales have caused shops along the avenue and historic theaters to close, causing locals to gradually abandon the Champs-Élysées, worried that it is too noisy, dirty, and expensive.
As with the Eiffel Tower, the other famous symbol of Paris, which stands across the Seine River, it is named in French for the Elysian Fields, the paradise of dead heroes in Greek mythology.
Place de la Concorde
On the other hand, Place de la Concorde, Paris’ largest square, will be the site of the official parade for ticket holders, in addition to protocol and artistic scenes.
This square has a bloody past: then known as “Place de la Révolution”, it was the site of executions during the French Revolution and beheadings took place (literally) here.
King Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette were executed by guillotine here in 1793 during the Reign of Terror following the 1789 Revolution.
After the July Revolution of 1830 it was renamed Concord.
Today, the beautiful paved square along the River Seine is recognized for its colossal column, one of two originally erected by Ramses II outside the temple at Luxor, Egypt in the 13th century BC. It was gifted to Paris in 1830.
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