Axe Historique

During mid-tour leave I saw Paris for the first time.  The sophisticated window frames, the grey stone, and notched spires, and bulbous light, and people wearing skinny jeans, and holding hands, and drinking carafes of wine: all of these impossibilities in Yusufiya.

We walked along the line of the city, Le Axe Historique, where the Arc de Triomphe is framed by the promenade of the Champs.

"Welcome to the West," Celina said.  And we crossed the Place de la Concorde at the base of a gold-capped obelisk.  It was carved with hieroglyphs.  "I bet that's stolen from Egypt," I said.  Celina didn't know.  I learned later that Josephine asked Napoleon for an obelisk before he set out for Egypt in 1798.  Even though Napoleon won many victories then the obelisk wasn't taken until later.

So it seems the West is always conquering the East for something...