Any Paris residents? Any tips on La Defense?

Question

My family will be staying at a hotel in La Defense when in Paris. Any good/cheap places to buy breakfast there? Shopping? Sightseeing?

Answer 1

I used to live in Paris. I'm admittedly not overly familiar with La Défense. (I've been there, but never stayed in a hotel nor spent much time there.)

However, I do know that there's a shopping mall there called "Les 4 Temps". Its largest store if I remember correctly is Auchan, which is a "hypermarket" (hypermarché, in French). A hypermarket is basically a supermarket and a department store combined into one. I'm sure there's some sort of food court there as far as breakfast goes, and of course you can always do some food shopping at Auchan if you're looking to eat on the cheap, relatively speaking. As for sight-seeing, while La Défense pales by comparison to Paris itself, the Grande Arche de La Défense is an interesting example of post-modern architecture. (At least I think that's the category that structure would fall under.) The first link provides some information about things to do in La Défense, if you click on "Alentours", but it's all in French. As alluded to before, however, I wouldn't spend *TOO* much time in La Défense, since Paris is a short métro or RER ride away, and has *SO* much more to offer- I can't emphasize that point enough. Have a great trip by the way!

Answer 2

La Defense is mainly a place for offices. But you can find shops in les "4 Temps" as said already.

There are many shops in this mall.

There are also some coffees like a Starbuck in the middle of the buildings...

In the metro station, you can find now also some fast food where you can buy sandwiches, Mc Donald...

But as you can guess, this area is not a very touristic place except that there is a museum at the top of the Grande Arche, and some modern sculpture : the big thumb of César (the same who made the french movies awards) and the strange fountain of Agam for instance...

Answer 3

You should understand that La Défense is a business district that began construction only in the late 1950's.

Its almost entirely office buildings and while a lot of people work there considerably fewer actually live there.

The big post modernist Grande Arche de la Fraternité is about 20 years old and just about the only thing worth seeing.

There is simply no reason so spend a minute in this souless, sterile, suburb when Paris is only a train stop away.