PARIS: LA DÉFENSE

Our last day in Paris began in La Défense, the business and financial district of Paris with its huge Arc de la Défense. We came back to Paris at midday to have lunch in a restaurant near Nôtre Dame we liked a lot.

Star sights of this day in Paris: 

• La Défense 
• Mosquée de Paris 
• Rue Mouffetard 

La Tour Montparnasse

Our hotel in Paris was next to Montparnasse tower,a 200m high skycraper

La Défense

One colourful building in La Défense

The Arch de la Défense can be seen through the vegetation

This fountain, designed by Yaacov Agam, is one of the best and colourful fountains of Paris

Another view of Agam fountain in La Défense

The Arche is almost a perfect cube (width: 108m, height: 110m, depth: 112m) and it was inaugurated in July 1989, with grand military parades that marked the bicentennial of the French revolution. It completed the line of monuments that forms the Axe historique running through Paris together with Le Arche de Triomphe and Le Arche du Carrousel

Of course the Arch de la Défense isn't the Tower of Pisa but we had a good time taking this picture. Curiously, the Arche is placed so that it forms a secondary axe (axis) with the two highest buildings in Paris, the Tour Eiffel and the Tour Montparnasse

La Défense is like a town with hotels, shopping centers and skycrapers. Underneath this square there is another city with a huge shopping center, a metro station and a RER station

View of Le Arc de Triomphe from La Défense

The square in front of Le Grande Arch is quite wide and links most of the buildings of this district which has Le Grande Arch as a reference

Although the day was lovely, there isn't many people walking because we went to La Défense in a working day

Located just beyond the city limits, the Grande Arche de La Défense anchors the eastern end of the historic axis that stretches from the Louvre down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe

Important corporations headquartered at La Défense include Cegetel, Société Générale, Total, Aventis, Areva and Arcelor

From the top of this staircase we could enjoy good views of La Défense district and Les Champs Elysées

Arénes de Lutéce

After coming back from La Défense, we did a brief visit to this ancient amphitheater

Mosquée de Paris

And we visited also La Mosquée de Paris whose beauty really surprised us, especially its gardens

The minaret of this beautiful mosque

The inside garden of this mosque was really nice

Rue Mouffetard

And finally, we came back to the surroundings of La Ile de la Cité through La rue Mouffetard, which was an ancient roman way

You can see more pictures of the days I spent in Paris clicking on the links below:

• First day in Paris (Les Champs Elysées)
• Second day in Paris (La Tour Eiffel and Montmartre)
• Third day in Paris (Le Grand Louvre and Île de la Cité)
• Fourth day in Paris (Les Invalides and Musée d'Orsay)
• Fifth day in Paris (Le Panthéon and Nôtre Dame)
• Sixth day in Paris (Jardin du Luxembourg and La Villette)
• Seventh day in Paris (Versailles)
• Eighth day in Paris (La Défense)

Besides, in France I have visited the following beautiful places I strongly recommend:

• Collioure, Elne and Perpignan
• Carcassonne
• Canal du Midi and Pays Cathare
• Gorges de la Fou and Coustouges
• Villefranche de Conflent

Finally, other great cities I have already visited are:

• Barcelona
• Berlin
• New York and Washington
• London
• Dublin in Irleland
• Istanbul in Turkey
• Saint Petersburg
• Rome and The Vatican
• Florence in Tuscany
• Lisboa in Portugal
• Madrid
• Venezia
• Dubrovnik in Croatia

• The Greek Islands and Athens
• Bruges, Ghent and Brussels in Belgium

• Helsinki and Lapland in Finland

• Tallinn in Estonia

• Tortuguero, Caribe, Arenal, Monteverde and San José in Costa Rica

• Marrakech in Morocco