Day 61 - Modern is Beautiful (#15 et #17)

Started the day off right with Walk #15 entitled Saint-Ouen’s Labyrinth: Navigating the World’s Largest Flea Market with Shaina, Hanna, and Rebecca. Not a whole lot of pictures coming your way with this one because taking pictures is highly frowned upon in these shops. The shops included anything from vintage dresses to original paintings to antique dolls and comics. Really interesting. First shop area that we went into.

It was very interesting to go into these different shops. However, it was more like a gigantic, unsorted museum rather a place where you could come to buy things. It was still quite enjoyable and we got to pet some cute dogs :)

Shaina, Rebecca, and I did Walk #17 after that (Hanna went home because she had already done it). It is called Small Buildings Need Not Apply: La Défense. I loved this walk! It was really relaxing and fun. Now I will give you some background info about it so you may learn:

“In order to keep up with the demands of the modern commercial world and attract international businesses, Paris needed more centralized office space. But given the unstable ground in Paris (the bedrock is carved up with métro lines, sewer tunnels, and caves farmed for limestone) and a desire to safeguard Paris’s uniform skyline (only broken by the Tour Montparnasse), skyscrapers needed to be built outside of Paris.

“Beginning in the 1960s, large towers began to be constructed across the Seine at the end of the historical axis that runs from the Louvre, through the Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel, and the Tuileries to the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Elysées, the Arc du Triomphe, and out to La Défense (remember that picture I took on the 18th?). This historical axis ends at the Grande Arche, a massive structure designed by Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen. The Grande Arche was completed in 1989, two years after Otto von Spreckelsen’s death. He described his masterpiece as ‘an open window to the world with an eye to the future... a modern Arc du Triomphe built to honor the triumph of humanity.’” Cool, right? Now let’s get into the pictures.

La Grande Arche.

I think it looks like a movie cover :D

This pool, which did not have water in it when we went, is called Bassin Takis. I like all the strange shapes.

With the Arc du Triomphe in the background. Interesting juxtaposition :)

I believe this is the one called the Manhattan.

La Grande Mosaïque. It is “a mosaic fountain by Michel Deverne. Made up of ten cylinders, it is arguably the largest mosaic in the world. What do the cylinders evoke for you? Plants? Giant pencil holders? Superman’s hide-out?” Think I’m gonna go with the last one :D

You see that sculpture on top of that ball? Well that is Le Somnambule or The Sleepwalker. The artist is Henri de Miller.

La Cheminée d’aératioin or the Moretti Tower is by Raymond Moretti. It is comprised of 672 colored tubes. I love it :)

This is a tag that I have seen everywhere! Does anyone know what it means or what it is for?

They look like pews. Interesting...

This is a fountain called the Fontaine monumentale d’Agam. Unfortunately, it was not on, so we did not get to see it dance.

This is “a 19th-century sculpture rising from below called La Défense de Paris by Louis-Ernest Barrias. This sculpture was made in memory of those who defended Paris against the Prussians during the siege of 1870 and was placed in this area in 1883. The name “la Défense” comes from this sculpture.”

This is by Miró. He is a famous Spanish surrealist painter and sculptor. I saw some of his works in the Musée Jacquemart-André.

This is the oldest building at la Défense. It was built in 1958 and it is apparently shaped like a giant airplane hanger. It is called the Palais de la Défense or the Centre des Nouvelles Industries et Technologies (CNIT).

Le Pouche (the Thumb) by César.

Shaina, shaina, shaina...

Yeah, I love La Défense :D

After eating lunch on the steps of the Grande Arche, we headed our seperate directions. I went to L’église St. Merry to attend a free concert. It was really cool! Very modern. This guy, Nicolas Crosse, played 5 pieces with his contrabass. In two of the pieces, he used electronique instruments to enhance and change the sounds coming from his instrument. Very cool. In another two of the pieces, a woman sang, but it was more like beat-boxing at some parts. During the last piece, he played two bows together to produce a nails-on-chalkboard sound. It is really hard to explain, but the concert was awesome! I really enjoyed myself.

When I got out, it was raining torrents! I got to the metro as fast as possible to head to my warm bedroom. And what did I do in said bedroom? French homework, bien sûr.