jueves, 27 de agosto de 2009

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:






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



Finally, other great cities I have already visited are:

4 comentarios:

Frank dijo...

Thanks a lot for your comment, Leslie. I really appreciate it. Of course I will keep publishing more posts.

Unknown dijo...

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Frank dijo...

Thank you very much, Leslie, for your comment. I'm delighted that you found this post interesting.

Frank dijo...

Thank you very much, Leslie, for your comment. I'm delighted that you found this post interesting.