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The Grand Arch
Lunch Al Fresco --12:00 Wednesday, 5 April 1995
by Richard Erickson (erickso@world-net.sct.fr)
To the delight of property developers, most of the world's cities permit the
demolition and periodic rebuilding of their downtown cores. At one time, in
the early '70's, Paris was inflicting itself with this too.
An expressway was slashed into the right bank of the Seine; with one planned
for the left. Practically the entire western part of the 14th
arrondissement, Montparnasse, was torn down in order to put up some really
ugly, really
high, buildings; for reasons that nobody can remember. The western edge of
the 15th got the same treatment.
But, odd as it may seem to residents with short memories, Presidents do come
and Presidents do go; and every President's departure is followed by the
arrival
of a new policy. Except for the President, the whole rest of the old gang
is still in place; but boss is boss and the boss in France is really The
Boss. The demolition of downtown Paris stopped.
There is a sort of barbell 'bar' line running more or
less east and west through Paris on the right bank. On it can be found
Bercy, Tolbiac, the Bastille, the City Hall, the Louvre, the Place de
Concorde, the
Champs-Elysees, and the Etoile - now named after a former President. Beyond
Etoile, the former last heavyweight on the 'line', there is the rich
suburb of Neuilly, administered by the 'department' of Hauts-de-Seine; not
Paris.
Neuilly has too many political campaign supporters to risk disturbing.
Beyond the Pont de Neuilly, there are a trio of presumeably defenseless,
out-of-favour, communities and New, Big, High, Paris, was carved out of
them. Right. A bit was ripped off Puteaux and a bit from Courbevoie, and a
bit from 'red'
Nanterre.
And it is called La Defense.
It is all, every last bit of it, all reinforced concrete and granite and
zillions of square metres of every kind and colour of glass that you can
think of. It is under construction; sorry for the inconvenience forever. It
has its own ring road. Train station. Now it has Metro too, added to the
RER that is
even further underground; that is a direct line to, where else? to
Disneyland, way, way, out east.
So, there is La Defense, on a line with everything else heavyweight, and at
the end of La Defense, sits, La Grande Arche. Truly heavyweight; yet, yet
airy at the same time. But really colossal.
Taking in the sun on the steps of the pedestal of the Grand Arche
Its 54-step pedestal, faces east to La Esplanade, an ultra-large concrete
desert, that runs back towards
Paris, almost down to the Seine at the Pont de Neuilly.
Thousands upon thousands of people work in the shops and high, very high and
ultra very high office buildings of La Defense. Other thousands work not so
far, far, and further underground.
Escalators lead from the Esplanade level down to the Métro/RER
station and underground shopping area.
There are hundreds of restaurants, snack bars, fast food frozen-burger
places, bars, wine-bars, cafes,
pizzarias, sandwich bars, and company cantines.
On the vast Esplanade there is nothing. Except wind, and in winter,
rain. Oh there is a little carousel, and there is a little airstrip for
skateboarders, but there is nothing like a Paris cafe even though the postal
address is 'Paris-La Defense.' So, for the French, it is a little bit like
downtown Albania. In other words: not in France.
View from the base of the Grand Arch - looking East toward
the center of Paris
Today, on the 5th of April, it was not windy; it was not raining. The sun
was not shining very hard, but shining it was.
And those steps are there, all 54 of them. The view is elbows-out wide. On a
clear day you can see....well, Etoile on its slight rise, at least. Bring
sunglasses, bring a sandwich, bring a friend.
Today was lunch al fresco at La Defense.