Fashion

Over the years we have discovered a seriously interesting triangle of properties known colloquially as the "Golden Triangle".  This lies between the Rond Point des Champs Elysées along the avenue Montaigne then at the Place de l'Alma a sharp right turn into the Avenue George V and then back onto the Champs Elysées.

Virginia describes this as "a very smart part of town" and no wonder. Here one finds all the famous brand name shops. While these are completely out of our range,  they obviously are not to the people who gain parking permits for their Lamborghinis, Aston Martins  and Ferraris. The owners of these cars are probably staying at the beautiful Plaza Athénée hotel where a room starts at just over 800 Euros a night.  Here then are pictures of some of the shops on avenue Montaigne. The names speak for themselves.

And here is the Plaza Athénée hotel.

Underneath the Place de l'Alma is where Diana Princess of Wales died in a terrific motor accident many years ago.  Above the spot people from all nations place flowers on a daily basis. But perhaps the most surprising thing we saw on the avenue Montaigne was an advertisement for Brisbane.  Considering the dearth of Australian news reaching Europe, this was quite a shock!

 

Once off the avenue Montaigne and onto avenue George V there are even more fashion shops lining both sides of the road but more interesting in many ways is the American Cathedral.  Some friends of ours are intimately involved with this lovely church which was consecrated on Thanksgiving day, 1886.  With 400 permanent parishioners, it reaches out to people of many denominations from all over the world.

Back on the Champs Elysées and now on the 31 bus we found we were following a route the French would describe as "perturbé"  the bus was rerouted to avoid massive road works and developments and was so full that passengers had to get off in order for others to exit the bus.