La Défense
This new town stands at the end of the Grande
Perspective. From its terraces you can see straight across the river
and through Paris past the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde and the
Tuileries to the Louvre - given a clear day and a pair of binoculars.
Originally there was a bare hilltop here, crowned by a statue commemorating the
Defence of Paris in the war of 1870.
The statue is still there, but around it has grown a town of the 21st century,
where people live and work high in the air,
work forty floors up in the building opposite, shop underground and take their
ease at ground level.
All the roads and public transport are underground, too.
After long deliberation about what to put at the end of the Grande Perspective –
a vast mirror was suggested at one time – LA GRANDE ARCHE was built.
This is not an arch at all, but a cube 100 metres long, wide and high, with a
hole through the middle and glass lifts up its centre.
In front of the cube is a wide open space with trees, a market, the great view
back into Paris,
and a fountain 60 metres long whose water, electronically controlled, dances to
music on summer evenings.
Also not to be missed at La Défense: the CNIT (Centre Nationale de l’Industrie
et de la Technologie),
one of the first buildings to go up, consisting of a triangular curved concrete
slab touching the ground only at its corners.
This is now the showcase of the French Computer industry.
LES QUATRE TEMPS is the shopping centre, on three levels (two underground), a
whole series of interconnecting malls
with large squares each with its architectural feature. As it serves a suburb
rather than the capital, it’s not an expensive place to shop.
Look out, too, for the sculptures on the esplanade. The brightly-coloured one is
by Miro, the biggest by Calder, who invented the Mobile.
As this one doesn’t move, it’s called Stabile. There are about forty other
sculptures around La Défense,
and you can get a brochure about them from the Information Centre near the
Grande Arche.
A good way of spending an afternoon is to start at Pont de Neuilly at the end of
the metro line,
walk up the succession of terraces to the top, check out the architecture and
sculpture, shop and eat in Les Quatre Temps, and go home on the RER.
