Well, if you are thinking about visiting La Defense, like it seems quite a few tourists have started to do, I have added a virtual tour here http://www.parisbyphoto.com/monument...nse/index.html so you can take a look in advance of your trip. There are 15 360° photos as part of the tour. Hope you like it.

The daY WE VISITED THE ELEVATORS SERE BEING REPAIRED

Ah too bad. I once visited inside the building looking for office space. They have serviced offices there. Grim inside as I recall, but I did not know they offered tourist visits to the top. I will have to check it out.

Great pictures. There is still no target date for them ever reopening the top of the Grande Arche to tourists, but it will happen sooner or later.

About a decade ago I took some nephews and nieces for a few days' driving to Paris.

By common consent, La Defense was, with boucheries chevalines, the absolute highspot. They couldn't see the point of the Eiffel Tower ("Blackpool Tower without the amusement arcades"), laughed at the insular nationalism of the Cite des Sciences ("Parmentier brought the potato to Europe. Haven't they heard of Raleigh?" the nine year old smartass wanted to know) and were hugely disappointed by Agincourt, which they thought indistinguishable from the few scraps of French soil that haven't been the site of a humiliating rout of the country's finest troops.

Their budding Gallophobia, though, evaporated with La Defense. "Why can't we have more buildings like this at home?" they all wanted to know. My explanation about the importance of laws controlling ugly expansion was greeted with much the same ridicule as the Cite des Sciences' endless lists of Great French Inventions.

You might be interested in my flickr set "La Defense: The Architecture of Oppression"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2667061...th/5215932876/

This is totalitarian architecture, designed to convey the message that the State is powerful and knows what you should want. In all but style, it would appeal equally to Albert Speer, Stalin, and of course, Le Corbusier, who thought we should all live in towers among windy plazas.

It is not quite as wretched as the new Bibliotheque Nationale, but it is deeply dispiriting. Not that I have an opinion, you understand, nor do I think it different in purpose from Versailles or for that matter, the Louvre. All involve oppressing people in service of pleasing one's powerful self, who clearly knows what is better for people than they do themselves. It doesn't even have the excuse of being AMDG like churches.

flanneruk, you must wrest control of those nephews from the brainwashers who are forming their opinions of what ought to be.

And no, I am not voting for Romney, but art matters.

I love your photos! I will be traveling to Paris for New Years and staying in Europe for about 18 days. You have some great places you have photographed. Would love your suggestions. I found your profile because I just posted about the catacombs.

Hi Rebecca1212,

Thanks so much for your kind words. I love photographing Paris

What kind of suggestions are you looking for?

If you prefer, you can email through the website address, which is [email protected]

Thanks,

D

How exactly did La Defense convey the message that "the State" is powerful when the buildings were built for private companies?
It's a business park like any Financial District in the US which has been planned by any urban/state/whatever planning commission and zoned for skyscrapers.

A business park...yes but like the States.no! Awesome buildings whoever they belong to or were built for. Careful of the metro stop however..clever bad guys..At a convention we witnessed a couple of folks get bag snatched as the guy in front of each person in the turnstile was stopped in their tracks while Mr bad guy partner grabbed their back pack day bags. Both syncronized as if a dance and no way to intervene except hollering. The bad guys won, the visitors lost a lot of stuff inclyding passports. The behavior was so blatant that if caused to warning to take care as speakers took the podium. Awful way to spend a visit. As stated the architecture is awesome.

My point. The State decided. In its infinite wisdom.


I'm off to Edinburgh in an hour; no internet, so I won't be able to argue this for a week or so.

Nonsense.
In any civilized country, urban planning is done by one body of administration or another.
What does it matter if a national body of France decides to put a business park at the edge of a town or if a state or county or city council does same with an airport or whatever major construction?
And I assume that La Defense could not have been planned otherwise as it sits on the ground of more than one departement.