La Défense

We finally had to break out our umbrellas on Wednesday, but that did not stop us from taking Metro line 1 (the line we live smack dab in the middle of) all the way out to its west end to see the Grande Arche de la Défense in the main business district of Paris. The rain very cooperatively paused for the 20 or 30 minutes that we were out there wandering around the plaza on one side of the arch and the long, wooden walkway (which, as we discovered, leads nowhere) on the other. We declined to take the elevators up to the top of the arch -- at 10 euros apiece, it's more than twice as expensive as walking up the stairs at the Eiffel Tower, and somehow I doubt it is as memorable an experience.

La Grande Arche de la Défense -- designed to be "a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Arche)



They made sure to tuck a carousel out there amidst the towering office buildings so you'd know you were still in France!



We walked up the steps of the arch, where an unmoving flock of pigeons was camped out far on one side, heads burrowed down into their feathers as they braced themselves against the wind and waited resignedly for the weather to improve.



Plaza on one side of the arch



Les Quatre Temps, the shopping mall adjacent to the arch, was apparently the largest commercial center in Europe at the time it was built.



Epcot Center La Défense


(Yes, I'm kidding ... I believe this is actually an IMAX theater)

The long wooden walkway on other side of the arch -- you can go out around 1/4 or 1/3 mile, then it suddenly dead ends, so you turn around and walk back. It reminded me of a supersized outdoor version of the Guthrie's Bridge to Nowhere.



Cemeteries turn up ALL OVER the place in Paris! The cemetery that was visible on both sides of the wooden walkway was the only old-looking thing we saw in La Défense.



A steaming building...perhaps a district heating plant?



Weirdly painted buildings off in the distance



My favorite company name of the day



La Grande Arche viewed from the walkway



After finishing our stroll, we attempted to get lunch in Les Quatre Temps, but it was surprisingly packed, so we settled for a cheap snack of convenience store madeleines and got on the next metro back to central Paris. We ended up having a relaxing late lunch as the only customers at the Palais Royal Hong Kong just a few blocks from home on Rue J. J. Rousseau. The sweet and sour pork and chicken with vegetables was a refreshing change from our diet of late (~80% paninis and crêpes -- tasty and inexpensive but a bit monotonous).



Since I did not have class in the afternoon, I used the time to check out the Alliance Française's "Multimedia Resource Center," a smallish library in one corner of their building. Unfortunately, many of their computer resources didn't seem to be working -- they had indexed numerous websites on topics that could be of interest to students (history, culture, linguistics, French grammar, etc.), but every link I tried led to a Javascript error and failed to open the page. The other odd thing I discovered was that they close different floors of the library at different times -- I had settled down to study on the third floor and was surprised when a librarian came around just after 5:30 to inform everyone that they were closing the floor and we had to go down to the first floor if we wanted to stay until the library's official closing time of 7:00. It's a fairly pleasant, peaceful place to study; I'll probably go back on some of my free days, although I'd like to check out other libraries, as well.

Aaron, needless to say, was back home working away diligently (while watching the French equivalent of CNN with one ear and one eye). He took a brief break around 9:30 to split a chicken and mozzarella panini and a tarte aux framboises et citron (raspberry-lemon tart) with me, purchased for 6,40 euros total from the sandwich shop around the block from us. Cheap but satisfying, as always.