Travelling west south west from the Arc we find the Avenue Foch, named after Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929), Marshal of France, and commander of the Allied forces at the end of World War I. (A fact that may have been almost universally known 50 to 100 years ago, though I wonder how many know the name, much less the man, now?)

If you thought the Champs-Élysées was wide, check this out.

The road width is still only 40 metres but the overall width is 160, with 120 of those being mostly gardens as you can see as you move your eye past the foreground buildings. The unpaved areas between the gardens and the roadway were intended as bridle paths for horse riders to travel along. For you see, this avenue was intended as a place to see and be seen.

Created during the reign of Napoleon III and opening in 1854, it was intended to provide a link between central Paris and the large (845 ha or 2,088 acre) public garden named Bois-de-Boulogne. That's a large space that Napoleon III ceded as a public park in 1852. It sits at the western end of the 16th arrondissement. Specifically, it would be the large green space that you can see spreading out at the end of this avenue's 1,300 metre run.

I've read that there are around 800 trees in the garden area of the avenue, including the largest horse chestnut tree (which is 5.1 meters in circumference) and the oldest false Siberian elm in Paris, dating from 1852.

Like many roads in Paris it has seen a lot of name changes over the years; originally the "avenue de l'Impératrice" (after Empress Eugenie, Napoleon III 's wife), it became the "avenue du Général-Uhrich" after the Second Empire fell in 1870. I'm not sure why; Uhrich's high water mark was as a divisional commander in the Italian campaign against the Austrians in 1859, in which he did well enough in by all accounts but that's hardly a reason to name one of the city's most prestigious streets after him. In any case the name didn't last long (not helped by the fact that after being recalled to service, the aging Uhrich surrendered the city of Strasbourg in the Franco-Prussian war rather than see it sacked) and in 1875 the street was renamed the "avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne" (often shortened to "avenue du Bois") in 1875. It was given its current name in 1829.

How much would it cost you to get a place here? I suspect that "eye watering" does not begin to describe it. I found one apartment with 2 en suite bedrooms for 9.45 million Euros. Let me convert that to Australian Micropesos... "OVERFLOW ERROR". Hey Garry, do you have any coins down the back of the couch?