Battle of the Arches

Having multiple interviews on your first week in a new city is a great way to start figuring out the lay of the land. I’ve always been somewhat of a human compass, but big, sprawling cities always throw me off (L.A., I’m looking at you). The urban layout here is certainly not the perfect, Cartesian lattice of Manhattan or San Francisco’s two grids bisected by a diagonal. Paris obeys no rules of symmetry whatsoever – streets curve, twist around roundabouts never to be seen again, drop off after a block or go on for miles only to change names, and several street names are recycled among the designations of rues, chemins, avenues, boulevards, allées, places, and so on. But the city’s layout does follow a geometric logic. The arrondisements, or zones (for lack of a better term), spiral clockwise from the city center, around and around from 1 to 20. About 36 or so points on this haphazard “clock” mark the loci of the ancient gates to the city, when walls once stood high to protect the populace. Outlying villages surround the arrondisements and are almost considered extensions of the city themselves; they’re mostly accessible by Metro (although some could take an hour to reach, depending on your starting point). And outside this circle, the bannlieu (suburbs) crop up. It’s not easy navigating this town, but I’ve got the chronological-spiral logic down, have the perfect city map practically attached at the hip, and I’ll be damned if I’m not a full-fledged Metro pro within my first month.

I journeyed to one of the outlying villages today, La Dèfense, for an interview. It feels funny to call it a village when it’s really a megaplex of modern architecture and commerce. One comes to Paris eager to soak up remaining vestiges of the Renaissance, the Revolution, the Rococo, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, the list goes on…not the hull of the Starship Enterprise. But if sleek skyscrapers and a gynormous shopping ring your bell, take Metro Ligne 1 all the way to its western endpoint and you will find yourself in standing in the midst of a modern Mecca – as well as smack in the middle of the Arches.

Behold in the distance one of the most famous landmarks in all of Paris. Then turn 180 degrees and you’re nearly in the shadow of Le Grand Arche, a towering mass that could eat 5 Arc de Triomphes for lunch, with room for dessert. Why did they build this? Did they feel the need to outdo Triomphe? I mean, it’s the Arch of Triumph, people! Anyhow, it seems Le Grande Arche is more than just an “art meets technology meets might” type of statement – it’s also a venue for public events, such as today’s kiddie wonderland of Moonbounce, jungle gym, and ball pit. Howweird. When I got over the shock of being in such a hypermodern, surreal setting, I actually started digging it. I had some fun with my camera.

And just for fun, I’m throwing in a picture of yet another one of today’s random discoveries. I like to call it, “Which one of these doesn’t belong?”