The Champs-Élysées takes its name from Greek mythology's Elysian Fields, the paradise where blessed souls spent eternity. The road was created in the 1660s when Louis XIV's garden landscaper André Le Nôtre extended the central alley of the Tuileries Garden into countryside beyond Paris's walls. Parisians drawn to stroll the gardens on either side began calling it the Champs-Élysées.

The 1.9-kilometre avenue divides neatly at its halfway point. The lower half preserves monuments and greenery, remnants of nineteenth-century elegance. The upper half surrendered long ago to commerce, where luxury brands jostle with mass-market appeal along one of the world's priciest retail addresses. The avenue has witnessed guillotine executions, Hitler's occupation march, De Gaulle's liberation parade, Tour de France finishes and World Cup celebrations.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the avenue's transformation from royal promenade to commercial showcase, explaining how Place de la Concorde's fountains map France's geography, where courtesan La Païva entertained in her sumptuous mansion, and why the 1900 World's Fair built exhibition halls that remain landmarks today.