La Défense
Stand under a 110-meter arch and look back down the axis toward the Louvre.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Paris offline.
The Grande Arche is the third arch on the Axe historique — the 10 km line running from the Louvre through the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe out to here. Around it, 200,000 people work under 61 towers scattered with 70 open-air artworks.
What to look for
- The Grande Arche (finished 1989, 37 floors) as the axis's endpoint — sight east through the Arc de Triomphe toward the Louvre
- César's Thumb (1965) and Calder's Red Spider (1976) among the district's 70 open-air artworks
- The CNIT — built and first used in 1958, the same year EPAD raised the district's first tower (the Esso Tower)
The district covers 310,000 m² of flagstone and sidewalk — walk it end to end and pace out the sculptures.
La Défense is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Place de la BastilleThe prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.