The Window

The taxi stops at an underground parking sign that says “Livraison”. Except that this is not really underground. I am very much on the ground but surrounded by concrete walls and ceiling that give the impression of being underground. I take the elevator and emerge on top of the “Esplanade” and it is almost like a mini Manhattan. There’s glass and steel towers all around us and some of them are actually bad to the point of being ugly. How is this place even a tourist attraction I begin to wonder.


This is the new office district of the City. At the western end of the Line 1 on the Metro, La defense is like an island of commercial space surrounded by suburbia. The traffic and the cars continue to navigate the roads below this huge concrete artificial base as computers, faxes and coffee vending machines whirr and whiz away in office buildings on top. I’m tempted to call it The Hanging Offices of La Defense.



Bizarre works of art, modern sculpture and the odd patches of green and fountains intersperse this attempt at redefining an otherwise flat skyline of the City.
I keep walking towards the main attraction, the Grande Arche, which is right at the end of this rather unique commercial space. Everything from the shopping mall to the small chapel has a modern architectural bent to it and all along the Esplanade seems to be rising in steps culminating in its main tourist draw.




The Grande Arche is like a rectangular frame with external elevators taking visitors to the top for a view. A closer look reveals that it is not just an “arch”; there are actually offices inside it. I climb the steps, expecting a view and am disappointed by the graveyard and the speeding traffic and miles of suburbs spreading away into the horizon.


And then when I turn back I see it – the City. I see the top of the most visited monument in the world, the Eiffel, rising almost like black lace into the sky. Directly in front, almost in line with the Grand Arche I see its grander and older counterpart, the Arc De Triomphe. I see the lines of the Metro crossing the Seine and I see the gray slate roofs and the black wrought iron balconies of the houses lining the broad boulevards of that city, familiar to many around the globe.


Every city has a spot that is away from it and yet near enough to see it from. It’s like seeing things in perspective. Grand Arche, La Defense is that window to Paris. And this window does indeed showcase a very beautiful city.