LG's fresco

keeps growing

the few spaces left should host some works in no time

Cofiroute's van paid another visit


and as part of promoting CNIT's reshapped shopping mall

cyclo taxis circle around the plazza

from base temporarely set at the foot of the CNIT.
These tricycles are much in demand as parts of corporate and marketing events

Special guests

Another trade show going on at the Convention Center / CNIT

One of the major exhibitors got the idea to have this marquee pitched right at the foot of the Grande Arche. The marquee shelters a small restaurant open to guests only. Access is by one of the underfloor corridors and stairs.

Not to be intimated by Samsung's archrival, some conducted their shows.

Kellog's was busy in convincing rank-and-files to enjoy a break with Special K cereal bars

While Segway conducted another promotional drive

Borderless Life by LG Now Going

LG is promoting its new flat screen TVs. In conjunction with the event,

the wall is used as a fresco displaying instant works by contributing artists

introduced by a file

Completed part

A contributor at work

While another is being interviewed

Not far away from Life beyond borders

Close by the Merry-go-round, Calder's red arches and reflection squares

A new window(s) was opening

Live Borderless at least until

October 27th

Not yet been inside. This will come in due course

Something new is up at a strategic location

Yesterday things started with a clump of "bricks" somewhere across the plazza,
and close to the Grande Arche, CNIT and Elysées-Défense/4 Temps


"Bricks"turned into walls


The marquee is now up


Gents are busy in fittings and furnishing


At first sight, LG also gears up for a big show.

Flashback, 15th April 2009, the Smart on Steroids

Among the events set up for a day since the beginning of the year. Burn Day posed then as an alternative to Red Bull and came to the plazza to get public awarness by targeting the thousands of rank-and-file office staffers who populate the surrounding building at day time.


A congenial crew was soon busy in giving away samples.
In order to both keep the samples fresh when stored and
to get something coming as handy as an attention getter
they brought the proof that

a compact Smart can also run on steroids ...

A few dozen yards away, L'Oréal came in with a new aftershave

Action took place close by the merry-go-round and Calder's towering red arches.

where L'Oréal


pitched the stand, while getting some help from actor Patrick Dempsey

Guys and gents could drop their current aftershaves

Modern art and greenery just beside.

EasyJet's newest fleet member - part II

Donning rampie's overalls, two crew members are tasked with attention getting with a loud speaker. Once job is done, then comes time in giving details on the event. In the meantime, the blimp gets some blessings from the business district church

For those in need of something to let time go by, and acting as stewardesses, Barbara, Lucie and Marie do a distribution of peanuts.

Media members start gathering.

The gondola is filled with 1,000 (recycles) paper planes, 20 of which are the winning ones

Now hovering at level 15 meters/45 feet, the balloon acts as an effective attraction. Lunch goers start coming-in.

EasyJet's Newest Fleet Member debuts at La Défense

Neither a departing Boeing 737-700, nor the latest Airbus A319 delivered, and not a jetliner either, EasyJet's newest fleet member recorded its first official sortie to and from La Défense central plazza.
The newest fleet addition is in fact a tethered balloon flying high the airline's bright orange and white colors,

which completed its ferry flight on board this van, which in turn acted as EasyJet's La Défense crewbase and station.

11.00 am, Inflating begins. Air-filled cannisters come in as handy to do the job.

coming up with the cigar shaped fuselage

which is mated with the set of four tail fins

Basically complete.
Firmly morred to the ground by a set of flexible cables tied to a couple of blocks

Then came time to test mating the gondolla with the blimp

Time for a road pionner to show up the latest achievement

Cofiroute is a french major motorway builder and operator. Its latest addition is the first leg of the dual level A86 which will eventually link Reuil Malmaison with Versailles in a little bit more than 10 minutes instead of 45 minutes through current road links

http://www.cofiroute.fr/cofiroute.nsf/fr/duplex-a86.htm
(in french, but the animation shows how it works)

The motorway is
entirely set underground,
in a two level tunnel,
each coming up with 3 lanes of dedicated single way traffic
so accident by frontal collision should be impossible
Trucks and two wheelers are banned together with vehicle higher than 2.80 meters
As the company will have to recoup costly and lengthy investment, access won't be free
Cofiroute offers 35 % off its published fare to customers who accept purshasing a LIBER-T (shortning of Liberté, ie Freedom) electronic pass.

So in order to reach the largest number of potential customers, the company's sales department has been standing up-front

at La Défense Business District,
starting with 4-Temps shopping mall for quite a few days
and supplemented by large billboard affixed on Elysées-La Défence front and visible from all over the adjacent plazza, across which thousands walk back and forth day-in, day-out.

Today, a customized van hosting a complete sale office has been added to the operational plan.

The best ride to SERENITY

Can be provided by paying a visit to this Van Hool motorcoach converted as a touring information counter on behalf of UMC, a mutual insurance company. (http://www.mutuelles-umc.fr) and parked not far away Calder's towering red iron sculpture.

A crew member making a presentation of health insurences to future subscribers for serenity

Pigeons can also make another use of things

Business as usual, it's lunch time and quite a few sat on the popular steps leading to the Grande Arche, trying their lucks for crumbs, pigeons routinely mess around and get chased by some gestures of dispair !

Well, some of those flyers got smarter than their stablemates

by recycling those disused flagpoles

into resting pads. Off-course, they refrain from demanding a complete pigeonhouse !

While some sample golf and skateboarding nearby

others pay attention to another marquee just a couple of yards away.

Colgate and UFSBD, France's non-profit society for Dental Healf and Protection jointly campagn in favor of a 3rd daily tooth cleaning set for after lunch time,

Office staff members being briefed of what's up inside.

Once inside, a dental cleaning kit consisting of a tooth-brush, a sample tooth paste tube and a sample of PLAX mouth lotion, together with an hard paper disk and a plastic cup come next as give-aways. The models behind the latters are for display.


Before entering this inflated bubble shaped marquee, one normally fills and signs a form of visit, which in turn will call for donating a similar kit to an homeless. Actual hand over to beneficiaries will be undertaken by the french social dedicated department of the EMS.
Then comes time for washing one's teeth.
Upon request, a dentist performs a lookup.

When back to the open air, I sized the opportunity to capture on memory card this


Merry-go-round which is not only a fixture of the plazza, but one of the earliest resident attraction as well. It originally sat close to the 4-temps shopping mall, but was moved across this part of the plazza to its current location a few years ago.