Another fine piece of French furniture is the Arc de Triomphe.

A keen thinker named Jean-Francois Chalgrin designed the arch in 1806 to honor (pardon me Queen), to ‘honour’ those who died in the French Revolution (do you suppose that included Marie Antoinette?) and the Napoleonic wars.

Fun little factoid: The Arch de Triomphe was the largest triumphal arch in the world, until Korea’s Kim Il-sung built a larger one in 1982 dedicated to … honor (honour) and glorify his role in the resistance to the Japanese from 1925 to 1945. It was sort of his 70th birthday present to himself. Class act.

But I digress. Here’s my tip du jour. If you want stunning views of Paris, do not wait in the redonkulous lines at the Eiffel Tower. Get thee unto the Arc – the line isn’t long, the climb isn’t bad, and the pay-off is high, literally. Also, at 6:30 every evening, there’s a petite ceremony (you see, I’m getting so fluent I can’t not speak French anymore) honouring (and Brit) those who have died for the glory of La France. It’s kinda cool.

And just to reward yourself for being such a great little tourist, Fouquettes is nearby and they serve champagne and it’s tres beautiful and lots of stars hang out there. While we were there, we saw Angeline Jolie, Brad Pitt, Russell Crow, and Amy Winehouse.