Champs-Élysées and around
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Presidential Palace

Twelve avenues radiate out from the place de l'Étoile, of which the best known is the Champs-Élysées, a popular rallying point at times of national crisis as well as celebration: crowds thronged here to greet Général de Gaulle as he walked down the avenue just after the Liberation in May 1944, and many turned out to support him again in 1968 in the wake of the student riots; more recently, thousands congregated in 1998 to party all night after France won the World Cup. It's also the scene of annual processions on November 11 and Bastille Day, while the Tour de France ends here in July with a final flourish.

Broad and tree-lined, the gently sloping avenue looks at its most impressive from a distance, especially from place de la Concorde. Close up, it's a little disappointing, with its constant stream of traffic and preponderance of fast-food outlets, airline offices and chain stores – a far cry from its heyday during the Second Empire when members of the haute bourgeoisie built themselves splendid mansions along its length and fashionable society would come to stroll and frequent the cafés and theatres. Although most of the mansions subsequently gave way to office blocks and the beau monde moved elsewhere, some of the avenue's former glitz lives on at the Lido cabaret, Fouquet's high-class restaurant-bar (which hosts the César film awards each year), the perfumier Guerlain's shop at no. 68 and the former belle époque Claridges hotel at no. 74, now a swanky shopping arcade. There are signs that the avenue's prospects are looking up again: a number of designer shops have recently moved in, a branch of the sumptuous Ladurée tea room has appeared, and new, fashionable restaurants and bars in the streets around are injecting a fresh buzz and glamour.

One of the streets to the south that has long had fashionable status is the avenue Montaigne, a catwalk of designer shops such as Dior, Prada and Chanel. Right at the bottom is the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, built in 1913 and one of the first buildings in Paris to be made of reinforced concrete, its exterior softened with marble reliefs by Bourdelle. The architect, Auguste Perret, went on to rebuild much of Le Havre in the aftermath of World War II. The theatre has seen a number of notable premieres and debuts including that of Josephine Baker in 1925, who created a sensation with her sensual, abandoned dancing. It's perhaps best known though for being the scene of a riot on May 29, 1913, on the occasion of the world premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The music's unprecedented rhythmic and harmonic ferocity provoked violent reactions among the audience. The whole performance was punctuated with catcalls so loud the dancers could barely hear the orchestra, objects were thrown at the conductor and fist-fights broke out in the stalls.

On the lower stretch of the avenue des Champs-Élysées, beyond the Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées, shops give way to flowerbeds and lawns. The gigantic building with grandiose Neoclassical exteriors, glass roofs and exuberant flying statuary rising above the greenery to the south is the Grand Palais, created with its neighbour, the Petit Palais, for the 1900 Exposition Universelle. Today, both contain permanent museums and also host good temporary exhibitions. Between the two lies the place Clemenceau, presided over by statues of Georges Clemenceau, French prime minister at the end of World War I, and a recently-added bronze of General de Gaulle in mid-stride. From here the avenue Winston-Churchill leads down towards the Seine, culminating with a statue of the man himself. To the north of Place Clemenceau, combat police guard the high walls round the presidential Palais de l'Élysée and the line of ministries and embassies ending with the US in prime position on the corner of place de la Concorde. On Thursdays and at weekends there's a postage-stamp market at the corner of avenues Gabriel and Marigny.