The Grande Arche

The Big Arch is huge!  It is a uniquely-shaped building, a hollow cube more than 100 metres on each side, located in the modern "La Defense" precinct a few kilometres from the centre of Paris, but linked to it by the fact that it lies on a straight axis which runs through the Arc de Triomphe, along the Champs Elysees, and all the way back to the Louvre.  There is a relatively small arch (19 metres tall) in the Tuileries gardens close to the Louvre, then the much larger Arc de Triomphe (50 metres), and finally the Grande Arche (110 metres), all lined up but spread over about nine kilometres.  The Grande Arche is actually built at a slight angle, to point at the Mont Parnasse tower, one of the other tallest structures in Paris.

Arc de Triomphe du Carousel

Arc de Triomphe

The metro line running straight out to La Defense is the M1, and seems to be quite new.  The train has no driver and is open inside from one end to the other with no dividers or doors between carriages.  It runs on tyres instead of rails, and all the platforms have glass walls and doors to prevent access until the train stops.

Grande Arche de la Defense