The Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a revolutionary Che Gevara, politicians Winston Churchill and Bill Clinton, writers Somerset Maugham and Mark Twain, the actor and the political figure Arnold Schwarzenegger – these names are well-known and these figures are best known to the world for their political, social, literary and other achievements. Moreover, the abovementioned people highly esteem cigar smoking and, thus, they come as people who own the greatest number of tools and accessories so requisite for this leisurely process and among others there are cigar lighters.
In the light of a variety and availability of glass items, glass ware is still appreciated by plenty people, especially when it comes to cut glass. The cut glass produces a long, lingering and musical tune when you put your finger at the cut-glass edge. So, in Japan the craftsmen make unique musical instruments. A crystal violin, completely transparent, is estimated for fifty thousand USD. Crystal glass tableware is not so much expensive though it is able to produce the charming, unique and so brittle music providing it is properly cared.
Wealthy persons are mostly known for their fortune only. However, despite they make billions, these people possess some personal features that attract people when estimating them. While Warren shovels up money, he has to do with quite conflicting image he created: he is known to be the proved miser and at the same time he privately donates huge amounts for charity purposes.
The Avenue
des Champs-Élysées is likely to be the most legendary street in Paris. The avenue runs
for 1.25 miles
through the 8th arrondissement in northwestern Paris, from the Place de la Concorde in the east,
with the Obelisk of Luxor to the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, location
of the Arc de Triomphe. This is the entire avenue in the center of the ancient
city. The nameis French for Elysian Fields.
And the story began from the different point,
though. The history of this street is not
that long as compared with 2000 year old history of Lutetia, that became Paris. First data documented
in this sphere dates back to 16th century. That time the place was half
a swamp, half a forest on the border of Louver and Le jardin des Tuileries
gardens). The French monarchs loved to hunter the ducks in the nearest
neighborhood. And why was there a swamp in the center of the city? Though, that
time the place was not a center but the settlement. And
the Seine dividing Paris intotwo parts has its old course.
And the idea to forget about the
scrubby lands next to favorite gardens was not a royal habit and in 1616 under
the decree of Maria de' Medici, the development and improvement works were
performed on this area. The court landscape designer worked on exterior design.
And soon three long avenues with elm trees appeared supervised by him. Some time
passes and the way are secured for the passage of carriages and gas-jets were
put by sides. This is the beginning of the story of des Champs-Élysées. First houses
appeared some time later, close to the middle of 18th century.
And that
was the time when the avenue got its legendary name. Since the time of ancient
Greeks the des Champs-Élysées were acknowledged as the Gardens of Eden to
accept the souls of religious people passed away.
Though, we
come back to our history. There is the period of the Second
Empire. There are elegant and magnificent villas and cottages in
the Avenue des Champs-Élysées with concrete roads and wide pavements. More shops
and stores are opened. And in 1815 the troops of anti-French coalition entered
into Paris.
They encamped here, in the gardens. And they caused a huge damage to the places
when it took several years to clean and rehabilitate the place afterwards.
The following
period of the most legendary street in Paris is
related to the year 1828 when the French government granted this region
to the municipality of Paris. And the only requirement they
asked was the further improvement of the territory. There comes the
time of mass
development (in the early years of 19th century the living dwellings
totaled 6 in
number only ...). With the lapse of time the Avenue des Champs-Élysées
get more
and more popular. And in 20th century this place is named as the
place for «national triumph ». That was the very place where the annual
parade
is held on July 12th to honor Bastille day. And the third of Paris
citizens cam here to
celebrate in 1998 the glory and victory of the French national team at
the
World Football Championship.
The Avenue
may be divided into two provisional zones, namely parking zone and commercial
zone. If you stroll from the Concorde
Square, then the Avenue will start from the famous
sculpture group by Guillaume Coustou. Starting from this point and to the Rond
Point (Round Square)
of the Avenue there is the park spreading to both sides of the gardens. Traveling
to the Arc de Triomphe we can even encounter a Théâtre Marigny. On the left there
is the restaurant Leduayen dated back to the epoch of Louis XVI. There is a bronze
statue of the great politician there on Clemenceau Square who helped France win in
1918.
There is a perfect
view to the Avenue Winston Churchill with the 'Pont Alexandre III'. The project
was justified as it was accompanied by the structure of the present avenue
Winston Churchill thereby giving an incessant road from Invalides to the avenue
des Champs-Elysées. There are Grand Palais and Petit Palais along the Avenue
Winston Churchill being the huge structures with high piazzas, friezes and
sculpture groups. They were constructed in relation to the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Though, there
are three separate building in Grand Palais, this palace is famous as, first of
all, the largest cultural and exhibition center. The area of exposition halls is of
approximately 5 thousand square meters. The largest artistic exhibitions are
held here. There is the Museum of Science in the western wing of the building named as the
Palais de la Découverte;
the southern wing is occupied with a department of Sorbonne University.
The Petit Palais is the museum the collections of which display decorative and
applied arts and canvases of Holland
painters, the sculpture works, though the most valuable and essential part of
it is French art works of XIX century.
The Palais
de l'Elysee is the structure that should be seen once not heard or read many
times.
The first
villa on the place of the modern palace was built in 1718. That was a classic
two-storeyed building decorated in modest patterns with a garden attached. The
villa was regularly extended, delivered and inherited, and among plenty of
owners was Madame de Pompadour, Caroline Murat, the sister to Napoleon, his
ex-wife Josephina, Napoleon III, when the building was developed and
sophisticated during his reign. Since 1873 the Palais de l'Elysee is the
residence to the President of the country.
Pavillon
Ledoyen, one of the ancient French restaurants is located here. The Pavillon, the
structure that remained till our times, built in 1848, played a great role in
history, and many legendary people visited this place, namely Gustave Flaubert,
Guy de Maupassant and Emil Zola would drink coffee here, Jan Cocteau with
partners founded the famous and reputed NRF, La Nouvelle Revue
Francaise.
And now we
are close to Rond Point. This is the Theatre de Rond-Point where the cast of
actors started working since 1980 founded by the reputed French workers of the
Theater of France Madeleine Renaud and Jahn Barro, and the round square with 140m
in diameter that completes the strolling part of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
The Editing
House of Le Figaro newspaper is located on the right and on the left there is
the Editing House of Jour de France. The big artery goes from this place in two
pavements of 22m each and the roadway of 27m. Along the artery there are
offices of airlines, banks, and auto pavilions. There are plenty of cinemas and
commercial centers at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the commercial centers of
the largest automobile companies, the famous cabaret «Lido» (and opposite there
is the most famous and expensive Russian restaurants- «Rasputin»), a huge store
of Virgin Megastore products, tour agencies of various countries, the central
tourism office to receive leaflets and booklets on sightseeing of Paris. When traveling
to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, you are lucky to have a snack for $4-5 Euros
if you visit Macdonald's, the fast food restaurant. It is the same as in every
part of the world. Though, while the famous restaurant «Le Fouquet's» is the
other place to honor. The Russians seized a small piece of luxury as well. Thus,
the central office of «Aerolflot» is the part of exterior that adds some style
to the place with black glass panels.
The most
famous brands presented in the Avenue des Champs-Élysées are Benetton, Disney
Store, Nike, Zara, Gap, Lacoste, Louis Vuitton, Guerlain, Sephora, Yves Rocher,
and Cartier. Plenty of stores are the largest in the world. In particular the Avenue
des Champs-Élysées boasts the store Louis Vuitton and the biggest store Adidas
opened in February 2007. And one of the latest brands worthy to appear in this street
is H&M and it took several years to construct it.
Currently a
rare French citizen may boast to live in the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
Though,
businessmen are not scared with prices, since upper floors of buildings in the Avenue
des Champs-Élysées are occupied by offices and lower floors are engaged with
stores. In 2006 Cushman&Wakefield Company
held the survey of the most expensive streets of world on renting. And during the
survey Cushman&Wakefield performed the comparative analysis of the renting
fee of 233 trading corridors in 47 countries. As reported, the most expensive
street for shopping is in New York:
the rent fare totals 11,4 thousand Euros for a square mater per year. It
followed by the trading street in Hong Kong - Causeway Bay, the rent of which
makes 9500 Euros for a square meter. And third place does for the Avenue des
Champs-Élysées with the rent of 6770 Euros.
And still, this
project gets more and more attractive for tourists, and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées
is one of the visited sightseeing of Paris
by 300 to 500 thousand people. The logical is the fact that this place is the
most criminal place in France.
According to the police reports, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées became the real "champion"
in the city in number of theft, 600
in total. This is the half of similar cases in Paris.
And still, Avenue
des Champs-Élysées is "must have" to visit and pass.
Lingerie for women was just the plain underwear until the 20th century when it became the mean self-expression, as the subject of esthetic admiration. A piece of lingerie seen in between the women wear looked quite shocking to be shame and no one thought of designing luxury items based on lingerie, leaving alone works of art. Today every woman dreams of having a pair, or even more, of luxury and high quality lingerie to associate with sexuality, sensibility and attraction with male.
Today the knitwear is presented in so many styles and
it is so popular that no single autumn and spring collections can do without
hosiery. Knit
women's coats are offered in classic, sporty, romantic, vintage, casual and
ethnic styles. The demand for knit coats
grows in line with the more increasing range of color and texture of woolen
yarn as merino wool, angora, alpaca, Kashmir. Globally known brands launch knit
coats for women in their latest collections and most celebrities today appear
wearing knitwear for many occasions and that's hard to picture that some time
back it was something different.
First established in 1980, the brand by Carolina Herrera is one of the well-known fashion brands; collections by Carolina Herrera make a conquest for the public love and demand due to elegance and delicacy of the fashion wear models. The collections were successful, though Carolina Herrera opened its perfume line first in 1988 presenting Carolina Herrera for Women. Carolina Herrera 212 is known to be the bestseller first launched in 1997, and today this fragrance takes its niche among the most recognized perfumes of the world.
First established in 1860, Chopard is one of the reputed watch and jewelry houses producing incredibly beautiful, fascinating jewelry items and watches of dream. The house also launched a number of celebrated fragrances as Casmir, Wish, Madness and Infiniment. Despite the long and solid history of the brand, it appeared only recently in the market of fragrances with the first fragrance Chopard launched only in 1992. Six years later, in 1996, the Chopard House presented its Mira-Bai, the fragrance which is still in favor among women keen on oriental scents. Mira-Bai shows no intentions to compete with such a fashion-setter in the sphere of oriental compositions as Guerlain Shalimar, though the fragrance by Chopard takes its niche among the classic perfumes in the market of oriental perfume.
