La Grande Arche, the Great Arch, is the western end point of the axe historique. It was one of French president François Mitterrand’s “grands projets”, inaugurated in 1989 at the bicentennial of the French Revolution. A 110m high cube, it houses government offices and a viewing platform.
As with the Louvre, the Grande Arche is not centered on the axis but at a 6.5° angle. The reason for this is technical: below the parvis run a highway, the metro and the RER train, and the foundations would have stood right in the way of those. As it is, the shift shows off the depth of the monument.
La Grande Arche was initially known as La Grande Arche de la Fraternité (The Great Arch of Fraternity) but is referred to as La Grande Arche de la Défense or simply La Grande Arche.
La Défense is Europe’s largest purpose-built business district with 560ha (1,400acres). It is located outside the Paris city limits in the département Hauts-de-Seine. and divided between four municipalities: Puteaux, Courbevoie, Nanterre and La Garenne-Colombes.
The name stems from a monument called La Défense de Paris honoring the soldiers defending the city of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. It was inaugurated in 1883 and has since been moved several times to accommodate the changing business district that now bears its name.
180,000 people work here, while only about 25,000 people live in the apartments that can be found in between the office towers. La Défense can be reached on public transport with the métro 1 which has two stations, one at each extremity: Esplanade de La Défense and La Défense (Grande Arche), as well as with the RER A at the La Défense station.
The axis in its extension from the Champs-Élysées was drawn under Louis XV, but it was only in the 1960s that the business district began to grow. It went through several stages until it became the collection of skyscrapers that it is today. Currently its highest tower is the Tour First at 231m, which is also France’s highest skyscraper.
Visitors to La Défense will notice the long esplanade stretching along the center of the district and culminating in the Parvis square between the CNIT, the Quatre Temps Shopping Center and the Grande Arche.
The Parvis with the CNIT on the left and the Quatre Temps shopping mall to the right – in the distance, the Arc de Triomphe
The CNIT is the oldest building of La Défense and the largest unsupported concrete span enclosed space in the world. Entry is free, you just need to look up to see the impressive roof structure.
inside the CNIT
The Quatre Temps Shopping mall was the most visited shopping mall in France in 2019.
Below the esplanade hides a network of streets, the métro, the RER train, delivery docks, service and emergency access roads, and parking garages.
The French hierarchy of roads is determined by who is in charge of their construction and maintenance. So if the communes (municipalities) are in charge of the routes communales, and the départements in charge of the routes départementales, the nation, that is, the French state, is in charge of the routes nationales.
The routes nationales (RN) form a national road network that predates autoroutes (highways/motorways). Contrary to the autoroutes (highways/motorways), there are no toll stations on the Nationales, making them a cheaper (if slower) alternative.
The RN 13 is one of the main Nationales starting out from Paris. It links Paris with the town of Cherbourg in the département Manche, as one of four Nationales between Paris and Normandy.
The Nationale 13 with the métro 1 running at its center, the Porte Maillot construction site and the Arc de Triomphe in the background.
On the stretch between Porte Maillot and La Défense business district, it accommodates up to 160,000 vehicles per day.
I’m sure you have no trouble spotting the Champs Élysées avenue on a map of Paris. It’s long, large, and straight. Its two end points are easily made out – the Place Charles de Gaulle-Étoile with the Arc de Triomphe on one end, the Place de la Concorde with the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre on the other. But did you know there’s more to this straight line?
View of Concorde, Tuileries Gardens and Louvre from the Eiffel Tower
The axe historique (historical axis) or voie triomphale (triumphal way) has a long history that goes back to the 16th century when Catherine de’ Medici, widow of Henry II, had the Tuileries Palace built. The palace burned down during the Commune events, it would be placed between the two “open ends” of the Louvre.
In the 17th century, André Le Nôtre, architect of the Versailles palace gardens, used the royal residence of the Tuileries Palace as reference when he created an avenue running westwards, planning as far as today’s Rond-Point des Champs Élysées.
Today, the axe historique starts at the Louvre, or even at the bell tower of the Saint Germain l’Auxerrois church and ends at the Grande Arche de la Défense.
Let’s explore the axe historique step by step, east to west.
The Montparnasse office tower is the highest building inside the Paris city limits, and for 40 years it was the highest building in France. The tower was built on the site of the old Montparnasse train station. The new Montparnasse station is just behind it, with long-distance trains going to the entire Atlantic coast up to and including Brittany, and commuter trains to the suburbs and Versailles.
The tower is 209m high, with a rooftop terrace on the 59th floor and a restaurant on the 56th, both open to the public for a magnificent view of Paris. The elevator, fastest in the world at the time of construction, only needs 38 seconds to reach the top. The other floors are mainly occupied by businesses, with 5,000 people working in the tower on a daily basis.
In recent years, major asbestos removal works have been undertaken, as the tower was built during a period when the danger of asbestos was not recognized.
But what is one lonely skyscraper doing in the 15tharrondissement?
The Montparnasse Tower seen from the Eiffel Tower
The tower was subject to controversy before, during and after its construction (1969-1973). In 1975, the city of Paris decided to ban the construction of buildings higher than 7 floors, effectively cutting short any prospects of creating a skyscraper business district within the city limits. But by then, the construction of skyscrapers in the new business district La Défense on the western outskirts was already well under way.
La Défense business district as seen from the Eiffel Tower
