An Eternal Star

With the same memorializing fervor that seized the U.S. after John Kennedy's death, the French are busy inscribing the late Charles de Gaulle's name on squares and avenues in hundreds of towns throughout the country. One rechristening has created a national furor: the Paris municipal council's unanimous but hasty decision last week to change the Place de 1'Etoile to Place Charles de Gaulle. Judging from newspaper editorials and talk in the bistros, vast numbers of Frenchmen seemed to feel that the famous site of the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is too sacrosanct to be renamed for any individual, however great.

Even Gaullists attacked the Paris council's measure. Said former Agriculture Minister Paul Antier, who has formed a Committee for the Defense of the Etoile: "When Winston Churchill died, there was no great rush to rename Trafalgar Square. Napoleon wasn't exactly a nobody either, and he only has a small Rue Bonaparte in the Seventh Arrondissement." There were many who doubted that De Gaulle would have wanted anything of the sort. Said Le Monde: "Nothing would be more contrary to his last wishes than de-baptizing the most famous square in Paris, if not in Europe and the world, to give it his name."

General de Gaulle staged the climax of his triumphant re-entry into Paris in 1944 at the Etoile because the site has been a traditional center for national celebrations since the end of the 18th century. In fact, its historical significance dates from Roman times. In 56 B.C., Caesar's lieutenant Labienus defeated Camulogene, king of Lutece (ancient Paris), in a battle on that spot. By 1730 it was already called the Etoile (star) because it was a junction of roads on a hilltop. Some regarded it as no more than a "field of mud or dust, rough enough to break the strongest coach," but its fine view of the city inspired innumerable ideas for monuments there.

In 1758, the architect Ribart de Cham-oust proposed the construction of a colossal, 300-ft.-high elephant whose trunk would send forth an immense jet of water to irrigate surrounding gardens. The elephant would contain a restaurant and ballroom and be surmounted by a gigantic statue of King Louis XV. The proposal was rejected, as were others to construct a white marble obelisk or an enormous sundial there. It was Napoleon who conceived the massive Arc de Triomphe in 1806 as a monument to the heroes of the French victory at Marengo. The arch was completed 30 years later during the reign of Louis-Philippe, and the place was laid out by Haussmann in 1858.

Today the Etoile is the scene of monstrous traffic jams, as an estimated 200,000 cars are funneled every day into the grand circle from twelve avenues. Still, the place maintains its grandeur. All Paris seems to begin there, radiating majestically outward from the arch. The eternal flame flickers over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Against that setting, countless Frenchmen, who only a week before had solemnly laid a great floral Cross of Lorraine there to honor Charles de Gaulle, nodded approval of the demonstrators who marched down the Champs-Elysees toward the great landmark proclaiming: "Leave us our Etoile."

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