La Défense

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This is La Défense /la defɑ̃s/, a modern business area just outside Paris that is one of the most dynamic business centers in Europe. This is an aerial view taken from the roof of the Grande Arche.

La Défense lies within the extension of the the axis of the Champs-Élysées and Louvre Museum. In this photo, you are looking southeast towards Paris. La Défense extends to the end of the trees in the central pedestrian corridor in the foreground. Just beyond that is the Neuilly Bridge over the Seine River. After that is the very pleasant suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine itself. Further on, you can just barely see another line of trees with a break in the middle, and that is the Porte Maillot on the city limits of Paris itself. Finally, way in the background, you can see the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Élysées; I have a picture taken of La Défense taken from the Arc, if you'd like to see it. In the original photograph, the Louvre is also visible beyond that, but the reduced-size images here on my site are too small to show it.

On the right, off in the background, the Eiffel Tower is easy to spot, with its countdown to the year 2000 glowing on its northwestern face (the one facing the camera). The squarish box right behind the tower as seen from here is the Maine-Montparnasse Tower (it is actually much further behind the Eiffel Tower than it appears here).

The Invalides and the Sacré-Cœur basilica are also visible, if you look in just the right place and squint a bit.

La Défense was undertaken forty years ago, but only in recent years has it really blossomed. The plaza you see here is packed with people during business days (this photograph was taken on a Friday, but during vacation season), especially at lunchtime. It’s an extremely pleasant place to work, and also a nice place to live, although it is nearly deserted in the evening.

Since this photo was taken several years ago, even more buildings have been added to La Défense, and in fact the Eiffel Tower is obscured by one of them when standing on the spot from which this photo was taken.

I also have a video tour of this district, if you're interested.

Photographed on August 27, 1999.