The axis view
Arc de Triomphe and Louvre through the cube on one line.
Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania — CC BY 2.0 · Luctor — Public domain · xiquinhosilva from Cacau — CC BY 2.0 · Chabe01 — CC BY-SA 4.0
One straight line begun by the Louvre centuries ago, extending west through the Tuileries, Concorde and its obelisk, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe — every addition honouring the line. The Grande Arche is its modern point, angled a few degrees off in deliberate deference (and, said some, engineering). One of Europe's greatest town-planning stories.
On a classic-crammed first trip: optional. From the second visit, or for modern-architecture lovers: yes — an hour utterly unlike museum Paris, the axis view alone justifying the fifteen-minute metro. And its being free rests the budget for one day at least.
The huge Westfield mall beneath, or ride line 1 back and hop off at the Arc de Triomphe to close the axis from its other end the same evening — a pleasingly symmetrical day's close.
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At the end of Paris's Historic Axis — the straight line joining Louvre, Concorde, Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe — France set its modern full stop in 1989: a hollow marble cube 110 metres tall, a twentieth-century triumphal arch dedicated 'to humanity' instead of armies, its opening wide enough to hold Notre-Dame entire. Around it rises La Défense, Europe's largest business district: a forest of glass towers over a vast pedestrian deck planted with coloured Miró and Calder sculptures — the Paris that matches no postcard, worth seeing for exactly that. The visit's essence is free: stand beneath the cube, look through its opening, and see the Arc de Triomphe and Louvre on the same line — a startling geometric moment — then wander the towers and sculptures. Direct metro from central Paris in fifteen minutes.
Arc de Triomphe and Louvre through the cube on one line.
An opening the cathedral would fit — scale grasped standing beneath.
Miró and Calder in colour among the glass towers.
Parvis de la Défense, 92800 Puteaux