I present to you, the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile; the Triumphal Arc of the Star. It's more commonly just called the Arc De Triomphe, especially since the road that surrounds it, the former Place de l'Étoile (Place of the Star as a reference to the 12 roads that radiate off from it) was renamed the Place Charles de Gaulle in 1970 after the former president's death.

The Arc sits between three of Paris' sub-divisions referred to as arrondissements; the 16th (south and west), the 17th (north), and the 8th (east). We'll see some avenues in all of those.

Construction started during the First Empire to commemorate Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz. It wasn't finished before Waterloo happened, and the restored Bourbons were understandably unenthusiastic about building a monument to the guy who ensured their place in the unemployment queue for almost 20 years.

The house of Orleans was more relaxed about that (after all, without Napoleon they probably would have remained a minor branch of the family) and King Louis-Philippe probably figured that cashing in on the glories of the Napoleonic era was not bad public relations. He therefore had the Arc finished between 1833 and 1836.

It's 50 metres, 164 feet, or (as I said in the gallery heading) 330 stairs to the top. If you're playing first division football as a box to box midfielder, you probably won't even feel it. If you're under 35 and McDonalds isn't a regular part of your diet, you should be fine. The further you are from 35 and the less frequently you use your gym membership, the more you'll feel it.

We had only one full day in Paris, and it was jam packed. The day ended with a late night cabaret show (getting back to the hotel around 01:00 the following morning) which I could barely keep awake through. That was really annoying because the bits I did stay awake through were exceptionally good. This climb did not in itself knock me out, but added to all of the other walking through the day and the length of the day, it was a bit much.

Do I regret making the climb? Not for a second. I wish I could go back and do it again because I would have done better photography. But I probably would have better planned out the day to take this climb into account. I had just taken the tour company's word that there was a lift (which as I said is not a complete lie) so I just did not see this climb coming.