Art in La Défense

The financial district of La Défense offers a lot of modern art like here in this water pond called "le bassin Takis". The area of la Défense holds more than 60 pieces of modern art making it one of the biggest open air modern art museum in the world.
If you click on the picture you can see the Arc of Triumph at the bottom of the Champs Elysées in the far away background right in the center.

Rainy Champs Elysées

I was on the Champs Elysées yesterday night and while waiting for my friend under the rain I took this picture (among others...) that I wanted to share with you today.  I do not like the rain but I must admit it gives nice pictures sometimes especially at night.

Commemoration day

The giant French flag is back under the Arc of Triumph as today we commemorate the armistice of World Word I.
For this occasion it is a public holiday in France and since its a Thursday this year, lots of people (including me) also take their Friday off which gives a 4 days weekend ! In French we call this : "faire le pont" which literally means "make the bridge" (between 2 non worked days). If you'd work in France this week  people would ask you " est-ce que tu fais le pont ?" (do you make the bridge?).

Commemoration

Today is a bank holiday in France (too bad it's a saturday !). We commemorate the end of world war II on May 8th 1945. The giant French flag is installed under the Arc of Triomph on the Champs Elysées and the unknown soldier's tomb is guarded by Republican Guards.

Arc

This is a view of the Arc of Triomph that stands at the top of the Champs Elysées avenue. The square where it's located is called "Place de l'Etoile" which means "star square" as all the 12 straights avenues around it meet there.