La Defense, Paris : Modern Art and Architecture

It was during out summer tour of Scandinavia in 2016 that we stopped in Aarhus in Denmark. Our guidebook recommended visiting ARoS, the modern art museum, so we did, and we loved it. After walking around Versailles the other day, with its walls full of huge paintings of battles and people gone by, we’d had our fill of paintings and sculpture, so we decided not to visit the Louvre. I know, I know, it’s a must see, but we just didn’t fancy it, so we’ve saved it for another trip.

After exploring the Pere Lachaise cemetery, we popped into a few other places in Paris using our metro pass, ending up in the museum of Modern Art. It’s free to see the permanent exhibitions, but they were just about to close when we arrived. With time against us all we could do was have a quick nose around one of the rooms and ogle a Picasso before we left. Just those few minutes in that one room reminded me of ARoS and why I like some modern art; canvasses full of bright colours left your imagination to see what it wants.

On our last full day in Paris we headed out for a run around the nearby park. Across the water from us was La Defense, the business district of Paris. Glossy, glassy monuments to corporate-ville rising up above the trees, themselves a form of art, decorating the skyline for miles around.

Our Paris guidebook came from a charity shop, as do most of our guidebooks. This means it’s about 10 years old, but it mentioned lots of artwork around La Defense, and it sounded like my kind of artwork. After a suitable recovery time from the morning run and a spot of late lunch, we set off to walk along the river to see what was hidden among the towers.

Arriving at the Pont de Neuilly at the eastern end of La Defense, we took an outdoor escalator up a level, then a flight of stairs to reach the Esplanade du General de Gaulle. This vast, open plan, area greeted us with a large pool of water filled with spirals with lights on top. The Takis fountain is supposed to offer an amazing reflection of the sky scrapers around us – but sadly it was a little windy, so the water wasn’t flat.

Moving along the esplanade it was clear that there were additional artwork installations – including a huge cut out of ‘Auntie Maria’ by Hanif Kursehi which stared out at us as we played around the base of ‘La Moretti’, a multi-coloured ventilation shaft by Raymond Moretti.

At exactly 5pm the 55 jets in The Esplanade Fountain, by Yaacov Agam, started to dance for us. I joked the fountains must mean home time for the office workers in the towers around us. No sooner were the words out of my mouth than revolving doors picked up pace and other doors flung open to cope with the hundreds of laptop-bag carrying folks emerging onto Place de La Defense to start their commute home – some of the half a million people who work here.

Just as the fountain kicked into life at 5pm, La Defense did so too, and became a bustling street. A coffee company took the increase in footfall to offer free samples of their latest brew, and as we weren’t in a rush like everyone else, we took full advantage while watching the world go by. Another wave of bodies washed by us at 6pm, and at that point we realised just how long we’d been here.

If you get a map of Paris and draw a straight line from The Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe you’ll be drawing along the Champs-Elysees. Carry that line further out and across the Seine and you’ll be drawing along the walkway we were taking, known as the Axe de La Defense. This became clear as we climbed the steps of La Grande Arche and looked out across the city – the Arc de Triumph clearly visible, if tiny in the distance.

Rush hour in La Defense is different to the rush hour I was used to back home. Mine were mainly spent sitting in a traffic jam, but here most folks walk to the metro to be whisked home like you would on the tube in London. But there are always a few exceptions to the rule and these were the people I was most enjoying watching. Grown men and women, be-suited in office attire whizzing along on electric scooters, but without the huge grin any child would have on such a toy. There were also folks on one-wheeled gyroscope thingys (I have no idea what they are called) gliding around and making the whole place look even more sci-fi than it already does. 

I guess in my mind that sums up La Defense. It’s a place of business and a futuristic looking place of fun, where life’s norms are challenged and you are made to stop and stare. Like ARoS, I loved this place and can certainly recommend a trip over to see it if you have the time. It’s about a 10km round trip if walking from Camping de Paris, but if you time it right and arrive around 5pm on a sunny day, I can think of no better place to people watch and explore some free modern art to see if you like it too.

Ju x