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| Maggie (in front of the Arc of Triumph) – Champs-Elysées |
6:51 AM – Maggie, who lives near Houston, runs very regularly. Early on Sunday, we ran on the West part of the Paris historical axis (map here), from “La Défense” up to the Arc of Triumph.
We thus left “La Défense” to cross its esplanade, the city of Neuilly, the avenue of the “Grande Armée” and join the Arc of Triumph on the “Place de l’Étoile” (place of the Star).
We went around the “Arc de Triomphe”, admired the other part of the historical axis: Champs-Elysées, far off, the obelisk of “La Concorde” then, at the end, the Louvre (on the photo above, by enlarging it, we can see the Obelisk and the buildings of the Louvre far off).
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| Maggie – The “Arc de Triomphe” |
On returning to “La Défense”, we were able to appreciate some of the numerous works of art arranged on the Esplanade, as “the pond of Takis” created by Vassilakis Panayotis Takis:
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| Maggie – The “Bassin” of Takis (1988) – The “Grande Arche” of “la Défense” |
or “Le Moretti” (“Cheminée Moretti”) of Raymond Moretti :
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| “Cheminée Moretti” (1995) |
“La Défense” is the biggest business center in Europe. On this Sunday morning, the esplanade of “La Défense” was deserted, contrary to the working periods when the paving stone of “La Défense” is full of businesswomen and businessmen who join or leave their offices.
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| La Défense (Click on the picture for a larger view) |
By the way, do you know why this business area is called “La Défense”?
In 1883, the Statue of the defense of Paris was placed on a traffic circle of Courbevoie, one of the cities where is situated the business center. The statue evokes the resistance and the bravery of the Paris defenders during the 1870 French-Prussian war.
See below “La Défense” in the debuts of the business center developments (begun with the CNIT):
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On the left, “La Défense” in 1962 with the statue in the center and the CNIT recently created (1958)
On the right, the Statue of “La Défense” still visible on the esplanade and drilling the paving stone.
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A little run of 10 km through space and time! 😉
Merci Maggie !
The route of the tour:
