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Lunchtime Photo

Your average lazy travel blogger/photographer wouldn't bother to visit La Defense on a trip to Paris. "It's just a puffed-up office park. What's the point?" Or maybe they'd take a telephoto image from around the Arc de Triomphe and call it a day.

But not me. Admittedly, I didn't go until our very last day, when I had an afternoon to kill and nothing else to do. And it is just a quick Metro ride from central Paris. And it was born the same year as me. But the point is that I went.

And I'm glad I did. Sure, it's just a big office park, sort of like the Pentagon is just a big building. But it's impressive in its own right—although they should shoot the person who decided it was a good idea to build a crappy chain restaurant right in the middle of the courtyard. Overall, it was worth milling around there for a couple of hours watching the kids do wheelies and taking pictures here and there.

June 6, 2022 — Paris, California

12 thoughts on “Lunchtime Photo

  1. Salamander

    Those Europeans really like their imposing arches, don't they? And why can't we Americans have a few? Mickey D's not included.

  2. rick_jones

    That’s the building where they had to change the exterior from the architect’s fear of falling Carrara marble to nice solid Yankee (Vermont) granite.

    1. HokieAnnie

      Not brutalist, that's the ugly 1970s concrete look. I guess it's "Modern" my brother would know for sure, I should ask him next time we talk.

  3. Traveller

    There are so many different ways and angles to shoot La Defense...I have not seen this low angle of view however....you made the mundane, exciting. Best Wishes, T

  4. Displaced Canuck

    I worked at LA Defense for a year, eat lunch on the stairs in front of that building and took Frenck lessions an office in the upper left of it. There is some good sculpture scattered around and some reasonable architecture but it is the worst place in Paris to eat.

  5. Displaced Canuck

    By the way this arch lines up directly with the Arc de Triomphe going away from the Champs-Élysées and across the Seine.

  6. Lemur

    Actually I've been there several times, there's some grand scale architecture there, and as mentioned, the alignments with classical Paris monuments is planning on a scale we don't approach in this country.

    National library is worth a visit also, if you’re an architecture buff.

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