• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

* * *

Sky-high future creations throw caution to the wind: the Tour Air 2 (2012), a demolition-reconstruction job of the stubbier 1970s Tour Aurore on place des Reflets will measure 220m; the currently drab Tour AXA (1974) will hit 225m on the height chart and be rechristened Tour CB31 in 2010. American architect Thom Mayne’s Tour Phare (2012) will resemble a coiled sheet of woven metal and stand a record-breaking 300m tall, as will the Tour Generali (2012) which should practically tickle the clouds with its cluster of spiky spires. Most ground-breaking of all will be the 300m-tall Tour Signal (2012; www.tour-signal-ladefense.com), a project commissioned as a symbol of the area’s third-millennium renaissance.

Reach La Défense by taking metro line 1 to the terminus (La Défense Grande Arche). RER Line A also serves that station; La Défense is in zone 3.

GARDENS & MONUMENTS Map

Le Parvis, place de la Défense & Esplanade du Général de Gaulle; La Défense Grande Arche or Esplanade de la Défense

The Parvis, place de la Défense and Esplanade du Général de Gaulle – a pleasant 1km walkway – is an open-air contemporary art gallery. Calder, Miró, Agam, César and Torricini are among the international artists behind the colourful and often surprising sculptures and murals on Voie des Sculptures (Sculptures Way), the Quartier du Parc (Park District) west of the Grande Arche and Jardins de l’Arche, a 2km-long extension of the Axe Historique. Meandering around this skyscraper district in search of these works of art (see opposite) is fun.

* * *

TRANSPORT: LA DÉFENSE

Bus 73 from Musée d’Orsay, place de la Concorde or Charles de Gaulle-Étoile

Metro Line No 1 to La Défense Grande Arche (terminus)

RER Line A (station: La Défense Grande Arche); if you take the faster RER, remember that La Défense is in zone three and you must pay a supplement (€1.95) if you are carrying a travel pass for zones 1 and 2 only

* * *

GRANDE ARCHE DE LA DÉFENSE Map

01 49 07 27 27; www.grandearche.com; 1 Parvis de la Défense; adult/6-17yr/under 6yr €9/7.50/free, family pass €22, 10am-8pm Apr-Sep, to 7pm Oct-Mar; La Défense Grande Arche

La Défense’s draw card is the Grande Arche (Great Arch) – a remarkable, cube-like structure, 110m square, of white Carrara marble, grey granite and glass. It’s constructed out of 3600 prefabricated cases, each 2.8m square and 800g in weight, and the entire construction rests on a dozen 30m-tall underground pillars. Scale the cigarettebutt–littered steps to the foot of this incredible arch for free and ponder its meaning as ‘a window to the world, a symbol of hope for the future; that all men can meet freely’. Or pay to travel 1.6m per second to the ‘roof’ on the 35th floor, where temporary art exhibitions hang out alongside scaled models of the arch, a video showing its construction, a ticky-tacky souvenir shop and a soulless restaurant which, incredibly, boasts no view (avoid).

Most interesting is the outlook from the roof terrace over the 8km-long Axe Historique (Historic Axis), begun in 1640 by André Le Nôtre of Versailles fame and stretching from the Louvre’s glass pyramid, along av des Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, Porte Maillot and finally the Esplanade du Général de Gaulle. The Grande Arche, home to government and business offices, marks the western end of this axis, although its maker, Danish architect Johan-Otto von Sprekelsen, deliberately placed the arch fractionally out of alignment with the Axe Historique (who wants perfection?!).

ÉGLISE NOTRE DAME DE LA PENTECÔTE Map

01 47 75 83 25; http://catholiques.aladefense.cef.fr, in French; 1 place de la Défense; 8am-6.30pm Mon-Fri; La Défense Grande Arche

When the crowds of suits gets you down, head for the futuristic Our Lady of the Pentecost Catholic Church and its sublime interior. Check out the flame-shaped pulpit, the image of the Virgin Mary that looks uncannily like the Buddha, and the individual chairs that unfold to create benches.

MUSÉE DE LA DÉFENSE Map

01 47 74 84 24; www.ladefense.fr; 15