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Arch of Triumph also is the name of a book by Erich Maria Remarque,  who is also the author of "All quiet on the western front."  "Arch of Triumph" the novel  impressed me for many reasons that I won't go into here.  I have that book in 6 languages so far.  I was dismayed to find out it was out of print in French.  

The biggest significance of Paris to me is that it is the city where that story unfolded.

The main protagonist's name is Ravic.  Now you know why my email address is jc@ravic.com.   I bought the domain name.  Arch of Triumph you see above is exactly how Ravic would have seen it as he approached it on his sleepless nights from his hotel on Avenue de Wagram.

And here it is, Avenue de Wagram.

In that story, Ravic meets Joan Madou on Ponte d'Alma.  Bridge of the soul.  I think it is no accident that Remarque chose the bridge with that name for the story at the start.  Here I am, standing on the spot where it all began.  Of course, you really don't care about all these details.  I understand.

For the interest of a much wider audience, this also is the bridge where Princess Diana died.  She died at the lower level of this bridge.  I didn't go there, thus no pictures.

Ravic lived in "Hotel International."  It must have been one of these hotels on the side streets of Avenue de Wagram.  I looked up Paris phone book to find that hotel.  There were two by that name, but none in this area.  

Ravic's life and my life share several common themes.  Now that I have reached his age, my understanding of him runs only deeper.  I only wish for more of his resolve, insight, humanity and cynicism in my own life.  And my admiration for Remarque for having brought such a character into life also runs just as deep.  I will write like Remarque someday.  My life without that book would have been different.

And this is where the story ends.  Ravic meets his friend before he turns himself in before the WWII starts and they agree to meet at this cafe once the war is over.  As I saw the rows sidewalk tables and chairs where they agreed to meet, I wondered if they all lived through The War and met at this cafe as agreed.

It was quite emotional for me to see the places where my all time favorite character/hero  lived, drank Calvados and walked sleepless nights.  I walked the same route Ravic and Joan walked at the beginning of the book from Ponte d'Alma to Avenue de Wagram.  I imagined Ravic (a German surgeon living in Paris as an illegal refugee after escaping Nazi concentration camp) holding Joan (a femme fatale who just ran away from her dead lover who was still lying in bed at a hotel room) from collapsing.  He was helping this fatigued woman from his humanitarian instinct, all the while his rational side was wondering how to get rid of the her peacefully at the first chance.  I could almost see those two walking on these streets, at the first chapter of this story of the souls.

I was grateful for Paris for having declared the entire city a historical preservation zone and having frozen it in time.  If Ravic were to come back to Paris today, he would have found the area essentially unchanged.  And he was here in 1942!  How I wish I could meet him just once, hear him say something depressing, and see him get rid of me at the first chance.