- ANNECY AND MONT BLANC -

Paris to Dover

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Our last view of central Paris : La Grande Arche de la Défense taken from our coach (left and lower right).

An international design competition was launched at the initiative of French president François Mitterrand. Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen (1929 – 1987) designed the winning entry to be a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe: a monument to humanity and humanitarian ideals rather than military victories. The construction of the monument began in 1982. After Spreckelsen's death in 1987, his associate, French architect Paul Andreu, completed the work in 1989/90.

The Arche is almost a perfect cube (width: 108 metres, height: 110 metres, depth: 112 metres). It has a prestressed concrete frame covered with glass and Carrara marble from Italy and was built by the French civil engineering company, Bouygues.

The nearly-completed Arche was inaugurated in July 1989, with grand military parades that marked the bicentenary of the French revolution. It completed the line of monuments that forms the 'Axe historique' running through Paris. The arch is turned at an angle of 6.33° on this axis however, a peculiarity which has been explained by several theories. In particular, the architect is said to have wanted to emphasise the depth of the monument, while the specific angle was chosen to create symmetry with the similarly skewed Louvre at the other end of the axis.

However, it seems the most important reason was mundanely technical. With a métro station, an RER station, and a motorway all situated directly underneath the Arche, the angle was the only way to accommodate the structure's giant foundations.

In addition, the arch is placed so that it forms a secondary axis with the two highest buildings in Paris, the Tour Eiffel and the Tour Montparnasse. The two sides of the arch house government offices. The roof section is an exhibition centre. The vertical structure visible in the photograph is the lift scaffolding. Impressive views of Paris are to be had from the lifts taking visitors to the roof.

Our route to Calais passes though the countryside of the WWI battlefields (right and below).

The cross channel ferry arrives in Dover Harbour (right) at nightfall and we say 'au revoir' to our fellow travellers before making our way home.............







FAREWELL - and thank you for journeying with us !