Dick and Becky outside the Plaza Athenee
You won’t believe your good fortune. You just arrived in Paris, checked in to your room at Hotel Franklin Roosevelt and decided to turn left on to Rue Clement Marot. You are on your way to the most beautiful boulevard in Paris: Avenue Montaigne.
You note, in case you get hungry later, that across the street is the iconic brasserie Chez Andre. Life is good. You are in Paris’ Golden Triangle or Triangle D’or, a mix of business, culture, shopping boutiques, fashion houses and lunching at L’Avenue. Lucky you.
Triangle D’or, located on the right bank, in the 8th arrondissement, is shaped by Avenue de Champs-Elysees, Avenue Montaigne, and Avenue George V. Life is pretty good here—just look at the cars around you and you’ll know what I mean.
Once on Avenue Montaigne, you can’t make a wrong turn. But be alert. Drivers doing 50 mph, in what might be a 25 mph zone in the states, is also very Parisian. But that’s what’s great about Avenue Montaigne. It is a wide, spacious boulevard, quite possibly the definition of the word boulevard where you’ll want to take a deep breath, and exhale thinking: “Ah, Paris, so this is what it feels like.”
Welcome to the most beautiful avenue in the world. To your right is the Palace Hotel Plaza Athenee, to your left is the lunching crowd at L’Avenue. And all around you are the fashion houses and boutiques advertised on glossy magazine pages back home that on this day are literally just steps away like turning a page.
What a great way to spend your day in Paris.
