Originally published on January 23, 2014, this blog post series is an undergraduate short-term study abroad trip in Paris, France in partnership with Salve Regina University and AIFS Abroad. The blog post may have been edited for clarity and updated with relevant travel information and links.
On Monday, we went to the Place de la Concorde and La Madeleine, which was originally a church built by Napoléon I dedicated to the glory of his army.
From the Place de la Concorde, you can see La Madeleine, l’Arc de Triomphe, the French National Assembly, the Louvre, and the Tuileries Gardens. The Place de la Concorde has a lot of history and I’m going to attempt to give you the highlights:
- The name of this place was not always Place de la Concorde. This was the place where the guillotine—the contraption responsible for beheading thousands of people during the French Revolution—once stood. The square earned its name as we know it today years after the French Revolution to leave behind the bloody memory. In case you were wondering, the translation of “concorde” means friendship…
- The obelisk in the center of the Place de la Concorde was a gift from Egypt, not stolen (although Napoléon would take plenty of treasures from Egypt and bring them to Paris). The details of how the obelisk came to Paris are inscribed at its base–essentially it was brought on a barge from the Nile to the Seine. There were supposed to be two obélisks, but the process of bringing in the first one was so arduous the second one was left behind.
As far as La Madeleine goes, it was going to be converted into a train station, but the idea was dismissed. It still serves as a church and a monument to Napoléon I and his army.
New England Parisienne 
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