On Sunday in Paris a lot of shops in non-touristy areas are closed, so all the tourists tend to swarm to those tourist zones and museums. I felt like getting away from the crowds for a bit, so in the morning I took the metro system as far west as it goes, to just outside the official Paris city limits at a place known as La Défense. La Défense reminds me a bit of Roppongi in Tokyo in that it's a purpose built district that combines shopping, housing, offices, entertainment and transportation into a neat package of modern buildings. There are no roads in the interior of the district, only pedestrian and biking boulevards, and the main access point is through trains and metro that meet in an underground station beneath one of the shopping areas. It has a really nice atmosphere walking around because you can't hear any traffic at all and the architecture, landscaping and decoration are all very modern and clean looking. It's pretty amazing that an area that's such a commercial hub (the shopping mall there is the largest in continental Europe, and almost 200,000 people are employed in the area, either in shops or the many large office towers) can be such a relaxed, quiet place. These planned urban communities have always interested me and I think they will becoming increasingly popular in the world as people try to deal with increasing populations and growing cities. True arcologies aren't far off!
I spent a couple hours in the huge shopping mall there (it, at least, was open on Sunday) and then started walking the 10km back into the city center to check out the Musee d'Orsay. It doesn't allow photos, and I have too much respect to violate that rule even though plenty of other people didn't seem to care. It has a large impressionist collection that it's most famous for, but has a nice mix of other artwork, furniture, design and of course sculpture. Some highlights for me were a Pan sculpture by Louis Rouillard, a collection of whimsical architectural drawings by François Garas and a good number of the non-impressionist paintings such as Gustave Caillebotte's 'The Floor Planers', Fernand Cormon's 'Cain' and Thomas Couture's 'Romans during the Decadence'.
Here's some random pictures of the day, from my walk and from one of the balconies at Orsay:
2 comments:
Interesting in noting that by going to the end of the Metro, it appears that all the building architecture was very new and modern compared to the city centre with the older buildings. Did you note by your walk back to the city a gradual transition versus of old vs. new architecture?
Thought I would mention that the camera you're using is giving great and sharp pictures in the various lighting situations, so a perfect camera for your trip.
And quite amazed by the street art you've posted. Tend to find that some of that art is more appealing that some of the older art in the museums. Guess - in the eye of the beholder!
Mike
The planned community I went to is pretty ultra-modern, so I wouldn't say it's typical of Paris. I'd say there's three major regions - the suburbs and places like the one I took pictures of that are pretty new, the central city, such as where my hostel is that is a mix with a lot of older landmarks but still mostly newish, and then the most central areas along the river where almost everything has a lot of history and even the simplest buildings have old architecture.
The camera has been doing pretty well. Some evening/night situations have proven a bit challenging - I took quite a few pictures of that sunset on Champs-Elysee to get decent pictures. For daylight things it seems to take pretty sharp pictures though, so I'm happy with it.
I obviously love the street art stuff. It amazes me that people put so much effort into these beautiful things that sometimes only last a day before being painted over - but that transitional nature is part of what makes it so interesting.
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