gratte-ciel

Last week I took a couple of trips to La Defense, once out of necessity, and then twice more because I was quite intrigued.
La Defense is the skyscraper district to the west of Paris. Many of France's largest corporations are housed here, and a total of 1500 businesses employ about 150,000 people. As I get out at my metro stop I can flick a glance to the left and see the impressive Grande Arche on the horizon. I kind of thought it would be a pretty boring place full of suits and tall buildings. It has both of these but also turns out to have some architectural gems and some funky sculpture. I had a dreaded visit to the Prefecture (situated in the Defense) on Thursday morning to continue the process for my residency permit. When I had to go through this process while living in Lyon it took several trips and many tears before I obtained the silly thing; so needless to say I have been braced for the worst. I went armed with 9 documents and their photocopies, and happily, thanks to my 9am appointment I had only a 20 minute wait. Normally one can expect at least an hour of queueing. And then found myself face to face with a lovely woman a who stamped in all the right places and now I can go back in two months time (and wait in line for 90 mins?) to pick up the little sticker and pop it in my passport.
I feel privileged to say that I am among the few who have had a mostly pleasant experience with French bureaucracy.
Lets cut this long story short. On this obligatory visit I had a quick look around and saw that the area merited some more of my time, and my oh my, it has a huge mall.
On a bright sunny friday I returned with camera:
Miro sculpture with the Grande Arche
Looking up when standing under the arch.
View from the arch, looking towards Paris. If you look very closely you can see the Arc de Triumph on the horizon. The two arches are perfectly lined up.

More photos on flickr.
And then on Saturday I attempted the mall but it was so enormous and teeming that I skipped through Auchan (big ol cheapo supermarket) and, armed with my groceries fled into the sunlight.