Start at the Louvre on the banks of the Seine River. Trace a line west north west and you end up going straight up the Champs-Élysées until you arrive at the Arc de Triomphe which is under my feet in this shot.

Keep heading in a straight line in the same direction and you come out at the Avenue of the Grande-Armée. This avenue separates the 16th (on my left) and 17th (on my right) arrondissements of Paris. Like the Champs-Élysées behind me it is one of the widest avenues leading off the Arc, with both of them 70m wide. This avenue is 775m long and runs out to the western Paris commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine (more commonly just Neuilly), which is in the department of Hauts-de-Seine. It's regarded as being adjacent to Paris rather than in it. In particular the avenue terminates at the circular road of the Place de la Porte Maillot. (Porte Maillot having been one of the historical city gates, and entrance to the Bois de Boulogne public park on the western edge of the 16th arrondissement.)

Like many European cities, Paris tends to keep a relatively low profile. Skyscrapers are rare and created with intent, when created at all. However occasionally there will be a business district where you can find a group of them. This is what we can see beyond the avenue's end; a business district called La Défense which was named after a monument to those who defended Paris in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. It's 560 ha (1,400 acres), with 72 steel and glass buildings, 19 of which are skyscrapers. Being in the Paris metropolitan area but 3km west of the city limits, this doesn't destroy the character of the place.

Pre-COVID it was home to 180,000 workers but only 25,000 residents which... is not really the objective of modern city planning since it tends to turn places into cold, windswept, desolate ghost towns after dark. Sydney learnt that lesson and is trying to entice more residents in. I imagine it would have been rather bleak during COVID as well. Still, it appears that the local authorities have an ongoing program of making the area more friendly... not that I expect to see it any time soon.

To the south of where I'm standing the Seine River swings south-west sharply before just as sharply doing a U turn and coming back to the north-east. The Avenue of the Grande-Armée terminates on this side of the river, while La Défense sits on the far side.