La Défense - Grande Arche

French business area: La Défense

 

La Défense in the daytime

La Défense

Black building: Tour Areva

Fan-shaped building: CNIT

Middle left building: Cœur Défense (=former Esso Tower [French: Tour Esso]) 

Middle right building : Tour EDF

Right building: Les Quatre Temps

The round hole with stairs is the exit of subway [Métro] & RER A.

 

Centre des nouvelles industries et technologies (=CNIT)
[English: The Centre of New Industries and Technologies]

CNIT is a convention centre including Hilton Hotel, Monoprix, Fnac and so on.

cf) Monoprix is a French retail chain like a supermarket. It sells foods, clothes, cosmetics and home products. 

Fnac is a French retail chain which sells cultural and eletronic products such as multimedia products, books and CDs.

Skyscrapers in La Défense

Left building: Tour T1 (known as Tour GDF SUEZ)

Middle building: Tour sequoia (known as Tour SFR) 

Right black building: Tour Areva or Tour CB1 (formerly Tour Fiat)

cf) GDF SUEZ is a French electricity & gas company. Company name changed in 2015 and it is now Engie.  

SFR is a French mobile phone company. 

Areva is now Orano. Orano is the world's largest nuclear industry company.

Grande Arche / Arch de la Défense
(officially name: la Grande Arche de la Fraternité)

view from the Grande Arche

view from the Grande Arche (the other side)

 There is the Arc de Triomphe beyond this street far.

Les Quatre Temps

Les Quatre Temps is a very large shopping mall.

 

 

La Défense at night

La Défense at night

 

the Yaacov Agam Fountain

 

 

Grande Arche & sculptures

Blonze statue: La Défense de Paris by Louis-Ernest Barrias

Red sculpture: Araignée Rouge [English: Red spider] by Alexander Calder

 

Episode of La Défense

Once we went out from the underground of the station, we discovered an another world of Paris. It was totally different from the typical image of Paris. It is very modern and many skyscrapers. The wall of almost all buildings were glasses, so they were very shining. When we looked up the buildings, many famous French enterprises' names were written on the buildings; Areva, SFR, GDF and so on. We could quickly understand that here is the centre of French business. When we looked around, people were mostly wearing business suits. The atmosphere in La Défense was sophisticated. We enjoyed modern architecture. 

We visited La Défense several times. Once we visited in the afternoon on the sunny day, it was nice view from Grande Arche. The glasses of the buildings shined a lot, so they looked more beautiful. When we visited La Défense at night, it was like a magic. We forgot about the time by the beauty of night view. We can keep watching the night view of La Défense for many hours. The fountain, statue and Grande Arche were lit up at night. It was very fantastic. It was unforgettable night view. We also visited Christmas market in La Défense. There were many chalets in the middle square in La Défense. 

La Défense is a business area but we can do shopping, watching movies and enjoy the scenery. There are many ways to enjoy La Défense. So Tomo&Chouchou love La Défense.

 

Tomo&Chouchou's advice for La Défense

1) La Défense is a good place for shopping. There are big shopping malls such as Les Quatre Temps and CNIT. 

In Les Quatre Temps, there are Auchan (=big supermarket), DARTY (=big electrical store), Go Sport (=sports shop), many fashion brands such as H&M, ZARA, C&A, PROMOD, CAMAIEU, NAF-NAF, MANGO, UNIQLO etc., cosmetics brands such as Yves Rocher, l'Occitane and SEPHORA, lingerie shops such as ETAM and DARJEELING, SWAROVSKI and UGC (=movie theater) and so on. 

In CNIT, there are Decathlon (=big sports shop), FNAC (=media electronic store), MONOPRIX (=store sell food, fashion, beauty and home products) and so on.

Everything gathers here in La Défense so we can shop in one place! In France, such big shopping malls are located in suburb. We usually need a car to access. We cannot find big shopping malls in downtown in Paris. However we can access La Défense by public transportation. Therefore La Défense is very convenient shopping place for people who don't have a car or who cannot drive a car, people who live in downtown in Paris, or tourists who want to get local things with reasonable price.

2) For people who love to take photos, we recommend to visit La Défense after the rain. When the ground is wet, it becomes a mirror and create a good reflection of the building. We could take a beautiful night photo of La Défense.

 

Information

La Défense

La Défense is a major business district . It is located 3 km west of Paris in Hauts-de-Seine department in Île-de-France region. It is a part of redevelopment district. There are many skyscrapers, headquarters of large companies and the Grande Arche. La defense is named after the statue of "La Defense de Paris", which commemorate the soldiers who had defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

Access 

La Défense - Grande Arche station by RER A 

or La Défense Esplanade de la Défense station by Metro 1 

La Défense -Grande Arche Faubourg de l'arche by Tram 2

RATP Bus line: 73, 141, 144, 159, 174, 178, 258, 275, 276, 278 and 360 

 

L'Arche de la Defense / Grande Arche 

Francois Mitterrand completed the project of making the Grande Arche in 1989. The sides and interior of the Grande Arche are all grazed. The name is arch but it's a building containing offices.

Height 110 metres, Length: 112 metres, width: 107 metres

 

Relating article

- Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile in Paris

- Paris - La Défense Christmas Market