Eurotrip day VII – june 26th 2008
This is our last day in Paris. Too bad, i really like the city. There are so many things to see…
First thing we went to see was La Defense. It is full of Manhattan like buildings (glass made skyscrapers). This is the architecture I like the most. I’ve never been to a place with so many skyscrapers, but i still was not impressed as i thought i will be – i hope real Manhattan is more impressive 
But still, the area is divided to 12 regions, it is 160 Ha big, there are more than 1500 businesses, 150.000 employees and 60 modern art sculptures and monuments – the biggest and the most recognizable is Grande Arche, which is one of the first things you see when you’re coming out of the metro station.
La Grande Arche - almoust perfect cube (width: 108m, height: 110m, depth: 112m)
It was built to be a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe
You must love modern art
I wonder how they clean all this glass panels
And now finally walk through all the skyscrappers , which are 90 to 180 meters tall (25 – 48 levels). There are 13 more skyscrappers planned to be built (2008 – 2015), and one was cancelled (it would be the tallest with 425 meters!), which would be the highest building in Paris, France and probably Europe.
Another monument: Le pouce - Caesar's Thumb
Tour Areva - second biggest skyscrapper in La Defense built 1974, 184 meters tall (44 floors)
Tour Areva in the background
Tour Total - the talles skyscrapper in the La Defense built 1985, 187 meters tall (48 levels)
The one on the top left is Tour Ariane (152 meters, 46 floors)
Cleaning the windows
Arc de Triumph in the background
Enough of modern architecture and art. Back to the metro station (which is by the way in the ground floor of the shopping center) and to the center to visit the Notre Dame church!
First thing i saw when we finally found the church was some lady feeding the birds (so i shot a short movie):
There is actually not much to see there: the zero point (which we’ve missed), the church and the towers. We didn’t climb the towers since there was too much of a crush.
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris from up close
Notre Dame de Paris from inside
Information table on visiting the towers
After visiting Notre Dame, we wanted to visit the Jardin du Luxembourg. It is a large park (22.5 hectare large) from the 17th century near the center of the Paris and it is really worth a visit.
Gego & Tadej chilling in the Luxemburg park
Gendar warning the ladies to move away from the pond
Place where everyone relaxes
Palais du Luxembourg (built in 1627), Luftwafe's headquarters in world war 2
This mostly completes our visit to Paris. We’ve seen alot, but we’ve missed more
Getting back to the hotel
Tomorrow at 0400 we will start our trip to the south of the France, to the city called Nice (near Monte Carlo).
Tags: Grande Arche, La Defense, Notre Dame de Paris, Paris
