Considered the most beautiful avenue in the world, Paris's Champs-Elysees, extending from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, has been the center of the city's elegant shopping, glitzy cabarets, cafes, and restaurants as well as the theatre for its great public events for more than 150 years. From the Second Empire to the present day, heads of state, cosmopolitan aristocrats, actors, and writers have frequented its smart residences and hotels, while fashionable people from around the world have strolled the avenue, browsing in exclusive shops and dining in haute-cuisine restaurants. The avenue has also been the scene for some of the world's great sporting exploits, from the daredevil landing of a dirigible by the great Brazilian aviator Santos Dumont to the annual arrival of the Tour de France bicycle race.

Through a elegant text and a selection of 150 photographs by artists such as Cartier-Bresson, Lartigue, Robert Capa, Raymond Depardon and Bruno Barbey, among others, this volume chronicles a century of the greatest moments in the history of one of the world's great cities.