In 1792, the statue of Louis XV was taken down and replaced by a statue symbolizing freedom. Louis XVI died on the scaffold that was erected next to it. The Act of 26 October 1795 named this place “Concorde” and it wasn’t until 1836 that the obelisk from Alexandria given to France by Mehemet Ali was set in the middle of the square. It’s the oldest monument in Paris |  |
|
« Was it fun in Paris? Asks Zelda Fitzherald in a letter to Scott. Who did you see there and was the Madeleine pink at five o’clock and did the fountains fall with hollow delicacy into the framing of space in the Place de la Concorde, and did the blue creep out from behind the Colonades in the rue de Rivoli through the grill of the Tuileries and was the Louvre gray and metallic in the sun and did the trees hang brooding over the cafés and were there lights at night and the click of saucers and the auto horns. I adore Paris. How was it? » |
« As a distraction we organized a fiacre rice. Four partners in four fiacres. A prize of five hundred francs. Down the Champs-Elysées bound for the Ritz-bar, about a mile in all. At the Concorde the four hacks were well grouped and it was not until after the Rue de Rivoli that Joan and I were defeated in the final sprint by half a length, the others trailing behind. Brandy for the coachmen, cocktails for ourselves and a brimming bowl of Champagne for the broken-down Marguerite. To make of life a race; to “run the straight race through the Sun’s good grace”. »
Harry Crosby |  |
|
|
|
|