Champ de Mars

The Champ de Mars is a long, rectangular stretch of open green space that bridges the distance between the Eiffel Tower and the École Militaire. Once a flat, unimproved area used for market gardening, it was leveled and enclosed in the seventeen sixties to serve as a parade and drilling ground for the cadets of the newly constructed military school. Its name honors Mars, the Roman god of war, a nod to the thousands of soldiers who once marched across these lawns.