On Tuesday we went t0 La Madeliene, visited the Champs Elysees, and the Arc de Triomphe.  At La Madeleine, we found out that it was built to resemble a temple to honor the glory of Napoleon’s army.  It was built in the Neo-Classical style and has 52 Corinthian columns that are about 65 1/2 ft tall.  What’s really awesome about the church is that they have mass there everyday.  Afterwards we walked to the Champs Elysees.  While walking I presented my Ethics topic about how France taxes business leaders and soccer club members with an income of over one million euro.  With them having to pay around 66% some were threatening to boycott and some even have fled the country to get out of paying, for example the actor Gerard Depardieu fled to Russia for citizenship.

At the end of the Champs Elysees, in a huge round-about sat the Arc de Triomphe.  It stands at 162 ft tall, 150 ft wide, and 72 ft deep.  It was built between 1806 and 1836.  The arch was built to honor those who fought for France, especially those who fought in the Napoleonic wars.  Around the top and on the inside, all the generals’ names are engraved.  What I found was interesting was that under the Arc there is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.  France adopted this idea from the Unknown Warrior in the United Kingdom.  Originally they were going to bury the Unknown Warrior’s remains in the Pantheon on November 12, 1919, but a public letter writing campaign led to him being buried under the Arc.  On Armistice Day 1920, the first eternal flame lit in the Western Europe since the Vestal Virgin’s fire was extinguished in the year 391 and it burns in memory of the dead who were never identified in both World War I and II.  The coffin was put in the chapel on the first floor on November 10, 1920 and put in its final resting place on January 28, 1921.  Above it says “Here lies a French soldier who died for his Fatherland 1914-1918.”  On October 22, 1922, the French Parliament declared November 11 to be a national holiday.  The next year the French minister of war lit the eternal flame of the torch that’s at the base of the Arc.  Ever since it has become the duty of the Committee of the Flame to rekindle that torch each evening at twilight.