Walking Down The Champs Elysees in Paris: My non-Traditional Thanksgiving Experience

The first time I encountered the Avenue des Champs-Elysées I was on foot, tired, and looking for a friend. It was a spur-of-the moment trip. A friend and I, accompanied by our significant others, decided we were tired of the traditional American Thanksgiving, full of food stuffing and football, so we headed for the exact opposite experience: Paris. So there we were, on the third day of our four-day journey, waiting for a local friend for a guided tour of the most prestigious avenue in Pars.

The Arc De Triomphe, which marks the Western end of the avenue, is a massive, impressive triumphal arch erected to honor the soldiers of France. Because of the speeding traffic that makes its way around the arch, and the fact that pedestrians do not have the right of way in France, an underground walkway allows foot travelers direct access to the center of the monument, as well as a chance to buy tickets and scale the arc's tremendous staircase, for which tourists are rewarded with a spectacular view of the famous street.

It was in that underground walkway that we waited for our friend, shifting a bit nervously at the grumbling street, or in this case beneath-the-street, vendor who was setting out his wares next to us, obviously implying that we had taken his usual spot. In reality, I felt very safe in Paris. The authorities were always patrolling near the tourist areas, and most of the street vendors I encountered were obviously legal and very kind. But the trinkets the vendor was selling paled in comparison to what we saw when we left the walkway.

Emerging directly under the arc, the sheer size of the monument surprised us. It was dark, but illuminated with soft glowing lights. The names of fallen soldiers are written on the interior walls of the arch, creating a kind of temple or shrine. Moving out into the avenue from the arch, we were nearly blinded by the lights, those hung for the holiday season, the streetlamps, and the signs and lights in shop and café windows. The avenue really comes alive at night, and though the area targets the upscale crowds-rent along the famous street can run as high as $1.25 million a year, second only to rent prices on New York City's Fifth Avenue-all sorts of people and fashions can be observed while strolling down the pavement, from the teenagers frequenting nightclubs, bars, and cinemas, to the tourists snapping photos of the arch and the obelisk, the landmark at the Eastern end of the famous street, to the men and women in fashionable evening dress emerging from the avenue's designer restraint's and clubs.

With our local guide in the lead, we quickly learned how to scan the menu and atmosphere of an eatery to determine whether it would be appropriate to sit down for a drink rather than ordering a whole meal. Generally, the places that attracted the bar hoppers like ourselves had some type of outdoor seating, a loud and colorful atmosphere, and a large selection of drinks available on the menu, which is almost always displayed outside of Parisian cafes.

Instead of stopping at just one eatery for a meal, dessert, and drinks, we frequented several, as to get a well-rounded Champs-Elysées experience-before dinner drinks at one establishment, dinner at another, after dinner drinks at a quite-looking bar, and a chocolate shop for desert.

After a few drinks and a meal, our group continued to stroll down the avenue, which has been the site of numerous military parades, most notoriously the celebratory German march following the fall of France during WWII, and the free French and American troops reentering the city after the country's liberation. Even today, the popular street is still the site for France's most celebrated Bastille Day parades, and the location for other festivities throughout the year. Located in the heart of Paris, and part of the Axe Historique, a path of monuments and historical sights extending from Paris' center to the West, the avenue is also a premiere shopping location.

Our next stop was a Louis Vuitton store that remained open, though the night continued to deepen. Armed with suave doormen and security guards who had the style of the British guard and the technology of the CIA, we were chauffeured into the large store, where the least expensive thing we were able to find, a keychain, cost over 100 Euros. The large shop gave us a chance to glimpse not only Vuitton's luggage, which is famous throughout the world, but also the company's clothing lines, housed in the store's upper floor. The multicolored television screens, loud techno music, and fashionable sales people made the experience feel more like attending a fashion show than shopping.

High fashion shops such as Louis Vuitton did not come to the famous avenue by accident. The Comité des Champs-Élysées, the oldest still active committee in Paris, which is headed by the Louis Vuitton Company, makes the decision about what businesses it will along the street. Other fashionable chains like United Colors of Benetton, Nike, and The Gap line the street intermixed with the street's fashionable specialties. From chocolate to expensive electronic equipment, almost anything and everything can be purchased along this street.

When it was time to return, a simple flick of the wrist got me my choice of several taxis, and with my minute French-speaking abilities, I was able to inform our diver that J'ai une carte. He quickly and pleasantly took us to our Mercure Hotel where we spent part of the night eating Champs-Elysées chocolates.