Paris - Champ-de-Mars

The Champ-de-Mars (Field of Mars), originally (1765) a military training ground, is now a large park-like area between the Eiffel Tower and the Ecole Militaire.

In 1780 Paris's first horse race, between a British and a French rider, was held here. In 1783 and 1784 the Champ-de-Mars was the scene of two spectacular (unmanned) balloon flights. During the French Revolution the Festival of Federation was celebrated here on July 14 1790, when Louis XVI and representatives of all the French provinces swore to uphold the new constitution, which established a constitutional monarchy on the British model; and it was here too, after the royal family's unsuccessful attempt to flee from Paris, that the Paris mob called for their death. In 1794 the painter Jacques- Louis David organized a festival in honor of the "Supreme Being" (Etre Suprême) who was to be worshipped in the new state religion proclaimed by Robespierre. This was the climax of Robespierre's reign of terror: four months later he too lost his head on the guillotine. In 1867, 1878, 1899, 1900 and 1937 a series of international exhibitions were held on the Champ-de-Mars, extending in each case along the banks of the Seine.