View from Arc de Triomphe, looking down into Place de L'Etoile; The avenue runs for 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) through the 8th arrondissement in northwestern Paris, from the Place de la Concorde in the east, with its obelisk, to the Place Charles de Gaulle (formerly the Place de l'Étoile) in the west. The Champs-Élysées forms part of the Axe historique. Haussmann's masterpiece, however, is undoubtedly the Place de l'Etoile (now Place Charles-de-Gaulle), where the Arc de Triomphe forms the hub of a twelve-spoked wheel, the unequal dimensions of which are disguised very cleverly by the treatment of the building façades. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 1/12/2008