And here I seem to have swung back to the left from my previous shot, for this is the Avenue Carnot, formerly the Avenue d'Essling. (Essling was a battle between French and Austrian forces in the Napoleonic wars.)

This was easy to identify from the presence of the Hotel Stella on the left, which may or may not be visible in gallery sized images.

The avenue runs north west from the Arc in the 17th arrondissement. It was something of an afterthought apparently, being added in 1854 to keep to the symetrical pattern around the Place Charles-de-Gaulle. It's worth remembering that that road (which runs around the Arc de Triomphe) was once known as the place de l’Étoile. Étoile translates as "star", the clue there being in the roads that radiate from it like light from the sun.

Although in the 1840s this was nothing but the site of a "small narrow and steep passage" (according to French Wikipedia), the avenue when created ended up being slightly wider than some of the avenues that we have looked at, at 40m wide rather than 36 metres wide. It is however something of a "road to nowhere" given that it's (apparently) the shortest road leading from the "star" at only 299 metres. The road splits part way down, and includes a parking station, the Parking Indigo Paris Carnot. 37.80 Euros for 24 hours? Better than you can get in a lot of places in Sydney.

It ends where it crosses the Rue des Acacias, where it transforms into the much older and narrower (20m wide) Rue d'Armaillé which you can see clearly in this shot where the trees end.

Ah yes, the trees... they are Paulownias, which are 17 species of hardwood trees native to China, Laos, Vietnam and other parts of east Asia. Apparently they bloom purple in Spring. Think of Jacarandas if you're Australian; it's a similar effect, at least visually.

The avenue was named after General Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot; general, statesman, member of the national convention, etc, etc, 1753-1823. He died in exile in Prussia since he was a tad unpopular with the restored House of Bourbon, given that he was one of the ones who voted for the execution of Louis XVI. All had been forgiven by 1880 (when the Third Republic was in full swing), and the street was named after him. By 1889 his remains were transferred to the Paris Panthéon (which was quite near our hotel, but we didn't get to see it). The fact that his grandson Sadi Carnot was President of the Republic at the time probably helped there.