Having seen the Place de la Republique I continued on in my quest to find the undiscovered during my second to last weekend in Paris. I went up a bit more North to find another one of Paris' arches, this one called the Arc de Triomph de la Porte Saint Martin. This is a lovely arch, but certainly doesn't quite live up to the hype of having such a long name with so many "de"s in it. This arch, and its big sister (Le Arc de Triomph de la Porte Saint Denis) about three blocks to the west were built clear back in the 1640s by good ol' Louis XIV in commemoration of his military victories, thus making them the oldest of Paris' arches. You'll recall that Louis XIV is known as the Sun King and was the master mind of Versailles. He was full of himself enough to have the following inscribed on the arches: "To Louis the Great, for having vanquished the German, Spanish, and Dutch armies: the Dean of the Guild and the Aldermen of Paris." Who hasn't he beat up on? What the heck is an Alderman? There u
sed to be a metro station at this intersection but it was closed during WWII, and now houses Paris' homeless in the winter time. Don't rush to this arch the moment you step off the plane, but if you have an extra three months or so of tourism, its certainly worth a look. According to the internet, the Porte de Saint Denis is better looking, but I didn't know that at the time so didn't take the hike over to take a picture of it. You'll have to make due with this internet special. Apparently Saint Denis' door was the inspiration for the Arc de Triomph and the Manhattan Bridge Arch in New York.
Having seen the Place de la Republique I continued on in my quest to find the undiscovered during my second to last weekend in Paris. I went up a bit more North to find another one of Paris' arches, this one called the Arc de Triomph de la Porte Saint Martin. This is a lovely arch, but certainly doesn't quite live up to the hype of having such a long name with so many "de"s in it. This arch, and its big sister (Le Arc de Triomph de la Porte Saint Denis) about three blocks to the west were built clear back in the 1640s by good ol' Louis XIV in commemoration of his military victories, thus making them the oldest of Paris' arches. You'll recall that Louis XIV is known as the Sun King and was the master mind of Versailles. He was full of himself enough to have the following inscribed on the arches: "To Louis the Great, for having vanquished the German, Spanish, and Dutch armies: the Dean of the Guild and the Aldermen of Paris." Who hasn't he beat up on? What the heck is an Alderman? There u
sed to be a metro station at this intersection but it was closed during WWII, and now houses Paris' homeless in the winter time. Don't rush to this arch the moment you step off the plane, but if you have an extra three months or so of tourism, its certainly worth a look. According to the internet, the Porte de Saint Denis is better looking, but I didn't know that at the time so didn't take the hike over to take a picture of it. You'll have to make due with this internet special. Apparently Saint Denis' door was the inspiration for the Arc de Triomph and the Manhattan Bridge Arch in New York.
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