| The best view of the Voie Triomphale is from the top of the Arc de Triomphe (daily: April–Sept 9.30am–11pm; Oct–March 10am–10.30pm; €7; M° Charles-de-Gaulle-Étoile), towering above the traffic in the middle of place Charles-de-Gaulle, better known as place de l'Étoile. The arch was begun by Napoleon in 1806 in homage to the armies of France and himself, but it wasn't actually finished until 1836 by Louis Philippe, who dedicated it to the French army in general. Later, victorious invading armies would use the arch to humiliate the French. After the Prussians' triumphal march in 1871, Parisians lit bonfires beneath the arch and down the Champs-Élysées to eradicate the "stain" of German boots. Still a potent symbol of the country's military might, the arch is the starting point for the annual Bastille Day procession, a bombastic march-past of tanks, guns and flags. A more poignant ceremony is conducted every evening at 6.30pm at the foot of the monument, when war veterans stoke up the flame at the tomb of an unknown soldier, killed in the Great War. Access to the arch is via underground stairs on the north corner of the Champs-Élysées. The names of 660 generals and numerous French battles are engraved on its inside, while reliefs adorn the exterior: be sure to see François Rude's extraordinarily dramatic Marseillaise, in which an Amazon-type figure personifying the Revolution charges forward with a sword, her face contorted in a fierce rallying cry. If you're up for climbing the 280 steps to the top, you'll be amply rewarded with panoramic views, at their best towards dusk on a sunny day when the marble of the Grande Arche de la Défense sparkles in the setting sun and the Louvre is bathed in warm light. While you're up there take a look at the small museum, a collection of prints and photos of the Arc de Triomphe's history, including the alternative proposals for a triumphal monument before the arch was settled on; if things had gone differently you might have been climbing up steps into the belly of a giant elephant with a fountain gushing out of its trunk.
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