BASSHUNTER DOTA RINGTONE

PARIS 2007
DAY 14 - WED, April 18, 2007

Although it wasn't our intention to do so, we inadvertently found ourselves retracing the last days of Marie Antoinette, so it is perhaps somewhat fitting that on our last day in Paris, we should end up here - Place de la Concorde, formerly Place de la Révolution, and before that - Place Louis XV.

Yes, this is the same place where the general populace, finally fed up with the excesses, hypocrisy and divine rule of the monarchy, beheaded the likes of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The infamous guillotine sat on this square (in the spot where you see the obelisk). Probably the last thing Marie Antoinette eyes gazed upon were her secret apartments right across the street on No 2 rue Royale (which you can still see to this day).

Among the recognized names to go up on the chopping block besides Madame Antoinette, were statesman Maximilien de Robespierre, fellow revolutionary Georges Danton (how ironic), and madwoman assassin Charlotte Corday (for the murder of politician Jean Paul Marat). The death toll in this square in 2-˝ years amounted 1,119 (although Rick Steves puts this figure at 2,780).

At some point the people's revolution had a change of heart and decided enough is enough - so in a spirit of reconciliation, the square was renamed Concorde. The guillotine was carted away, and eventually was replaced in 1836 with this 3,200-year-old, imported from Luxor, Egypt, 72-foot, 220-ton, red granite, hieroglyphic obelisk, and the two fountains you see here.

Today, Place de la Concorde is the focal point of triumphal parades and celebrations (think: July 14th - Bastille Day) because of the square's line of location in the heart of Paris which the locals call the "perspectif royale: the Louvre - Place de la Concorde Obelisk - Arc de Triomphe - Grande Arc de la Défense.

View from the Elgin Bridge
From right to left:
Singapore Telecom Towers
UOB Plaza 1
OUB Centre
OUB Plaza 2
Singapore Land Towers
Six Battery Road
Bank of China
Maybank Tower
The Empress Place
In the middle:
Singapore River, with boat quay on the right

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