Arc de Triomphe

roundabouts...

What about that one? The, the, at the, is it at the Arc de Triomphe? Yeah.

That roundabout with like 12 lanes?

Yeah, no,

Paintings of Raphael and David.

Arc de Triomphe.

Béranger, the poet.

Versailles, August thirty-one.

Peace to his ashes.

During my ramble through this noted place, I saw several who were hanging fresh wreaths of everlasting flowers on the tombs of the departed.

A ride in an omnibus down the boulevards and away up the Champs-Élysées brought me to the Arc de Triomphe, and after ascending a flight of one hundred and sixty-one steps, I was overlooking the City of Statuary.

This stupendous monument was commenced by Napoleon in 1806, and in 1811 it had only reached the cornice of the base, where it stopped, and it was left for Louis-Philippe to finish.

Blast aperitifs, Pernod, Amer Picon, bad change, naively seductive hoary salon picture cocottes, slouching blue porters can carry a pantechnicon, stupidly rapacious people at every step, economy maniacs, oui en cub for being a bad pun.

Paris, claptrap heaven of amative German professor, ubiquitous lines of silly little trees, Arc de Triomphe, imperturbable endless prettiness, large empty cliques higher up, bad air for the individual.

Blast Mecca of the American, because it is not the other side of Suez Canal instead of an afternoon's ride from London.

Three.

And I love his plans to spruce up the nation's capital.

He wants to build an American Arc de Triomphe.

I don't even know what triumph it will be commemorating at this point.

But...

There is nothing Trump enjoys more than talking construction, a topic that has defined his second term in office.

In less than two years, Trump has nearly finished a new White House helipad, turned the Rose Garden into a sculpture laden patio, regilded statues standing century on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, added his name to the Kennedy Center and battled with imagined vandals and actual algae blooms in a disastrous attempt to refurbish the reflecting pool on the National Mall.

He has plans to turn a federally owned public golf course into a championship caliber destination and to build an arch, a Trump-sized version of the Arc de Triomphe near Arlington National Cemetery.

Since Trump's return to the White House, his administration has made changes to more than 100 structures in Washington, D.C., the total price tag somewhere north of a billion dollars.

Particularly clear on the arch's engravings is the seven-branched menorah, which is depicted being looted from the temple and paraded on the streets of Rome.

The arch has been important in art history and was the inspiration for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Soon after the triumph, Titus' exalted political position was confirmed when he was formally granted tribunician power, which had since the years of Augustus' rule been the mark of an emperor or his heir-designate, and Titus along with his brother had already been given the title of Caesar by the Senate before his return to Rome.

Though it may seem fairly obvious to modern eyes that Titus would be Vespasian's successor, in the empire at this time primogeniture was far from the established custom, and indeed Titus would be the first son to succeed his biological father as emperor in the empire's history.

And you can see other features.

And if you walk straight out of it, you'll pass through the Tuileries Gardens and you'll go up the Champs-Élysées into the Arc de Triomphe.

So the way that the focal points and the landmarks are laid out and connected by the Grand Boulevard so that you're naturally flowing between them and can see them and navigate them from the perspective of the other one.

I think is so brilliant.

Then came the wedding celebration, for which the guests were flown by private jet to Paris.

The five days of face-- festivities included a private lunch in the Chanel Haute Couture suite, a rehearsal dinner at the Paris Opera House, fireworks at the Eiffel Tower, a party under the Arc de Triomphe, and a night at the Palace of Versailles.

The Brockways rented out the entire grounds of Versailles.

Guests dined in the palace in the style of the lost monarchy, served by waiters dressed in period costume.