Place Charles de Gaulle

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8e, 16e, 17e Arrt. Place CHARLES DE GAULLE Arrondissement VIIIe, XVIe, XVIIe Quarter Champs Elysées. Faubourg du Roule. Chaillot. Ternes. Length 240 m Width 240 m Creation 1670 Denomination 13 November 1970

Even at night, the Place de l'Étoile is busy with cars swirling around its multiple lanes.

Traffic 10-abreast traverses the Place de L'Étoile, seen from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Place Charles de Gaulle

The 12 roads radiating from the Place de l'Étoile, seen from an airliner at 35,000 feet (11,000 m). For orientation, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is the road leading to the formal park area at upper right.

The Place de l'Étoile is a large road junction in Paris, France, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues (hence the name "Star Square") including the Champs-Élysées which continues to the east. It was renamed Place Charles de Gaulle in 1970 following the death of General and President Charles de Gaulle. It is still often referred to by its original name, and the nearby Metro station retains the designation Charles De Gaulle - Étoile.

The place lies in the middle of the Axe historique and at its centre stands the Arc de Triomphe.

[edit] History

The Barrière de l'Étoile in the early 19th century; the buildings were demolished after 1859

The original name of the area was the Butte Chaillot ("Chaillot mound", named after the locality). At the time it was the point of convergence of several hunting trails. The Marquis de Marigny constructed monumental roadworks, completed in 1777, on the mound when he was establishing the plantations along the Champs-Elysees. This work included paving of the road in the form of a star, which still exists. The junction became known as the Place de l'Étoile ("place of the star").

In 1787, during the construction of the Wall of the Farmers-General, la Barrière de l'Étoile (also known as the Barrière de Neuilly) was built to the design of Claude Nicolas Ledoux for the collection of the octroi tax at the extrance to Paris. The wall and the two buildings built on either side of the Place de l'Étoile were demolished in the nineteenth century.

The Place de l'Étoile and the avenues leading to it were extensively redesigned as part of Baron Haussmann's urban planning projects.

[edit] Description

The twelve avenues, clockwise from the north, are the following:

1. Avenue de Wagram, thus called since the Second French Empire, and boulevard de l'Étoile or boulevard Bezons before
2. Avenue Hoche: avenue de la Reine-Hortense during the Second Empire and boulevard Monceau before
3. Avenue de Friedland since the Second Empire and boulevard Beaujon before
4. Avenue des Champs-Élysées
5. Avenue Marceau: avenue Joséphine during the Second Empire
6. Avenue d'Iéna
7. Avenue Kléber: avenue du Roi-de-Rome during the Second Empire and boulevard de Passy before
8. Avenue Victor Hugo: avenue d'Eylau during the Second Empire and avenue de Saint-Cloud before
9. Avenue Foch: avenue du Bois (de Boulogne) during the Third Republic and avenue de l'Impératrice during the Second Empire
10. Avenue de la Grande-Armée during the Second Empire and avenue de Neuilly before
11. Avenue Carnot: avenue d'Essling during the Second Empire
12. Avenue Mac-Mahon: avenue du Prince-Jérôme during the Second Empire

The place is symmetrical and thus has six axes:

1. Axis avenue Mac-Mahon and avenue d'Iéna
2. Axis avenue de Wagram and avenue Kléber
3. Axis avenue Hoche and avenue Victor-Hugo
4. Axis avenue de Friedland and avenue Foch
5. Axis avenue des Champs-Élysées and avenue de la Grande-Armée: the is the axe historique of Paris
6. Axis avenue Marceau and avenue Carnot

The Place de l'Étoile (as well as the Arc de Triomphe) is split between the VIIIe, XVIe and the XVIIe arrondissements of Paris:

• VIIIe: area between avenue de Wagram and avenue Marceau
• XVIe: area between avenue Marceau and avenue de la Grande-Armée
• XVIIe: area between avenue de la Grande Armée and avenue de Wagram

The place is surrounded by two streets forming a circle around it: the rue de Presbourg and the rue de Tilsitt which have been so named since 1864, after diplomatic successes of Napoleon.

[edit] Literature

La Place de l'étoile is the title of a novel by French writer Patrick Modiano.

[edit] Transportation

___	located near the metro station: Charles de Gaulle - Étoile.

(Métro and RER)

[edit] Motor Insurance Myth

There is an urban myth that motor insurance companies will not cover driving around the Étoile, which is not strictly true. Insurance companies generally cover motor accidents only on the Étoile under a knock-for-knock agreement^[1], whereby each insurance company will pay for losses by its own policyholder, provided that the other party's insurance company agrees to do the same for the other policyholder.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Paris portal

• Media related to Place de l'Étoile at Wikimedia Commons
• Satellite image from Google Maps

Coordinates: 48°52′26″N 2°17′41″E / 48.87389°N 2.29472°E / 48.87389; 2.29472