The avenue des Champs-Élysées is part of Paris's monumental axis, La Voie Triomphale, which runs in a dead-straight line from the Louvre along the central alley of the Tuileries gardens, across place de la Concorde and through the Arc de Triomphe , finally ending up at La Défense. Its nine-kilometre length is punctuated by grandiose constructions erected over the centuries by kings and emperors, presidents and corporations, each a monumental gesture aimed at promoting French power and prestige.