Dubai, at Mall of the Emirates

 

One of the attractions of Dubai is its magnificent Shopping Malls. From the outside a mall looked like an ordinary building, but inside it is truly amazing, with an attractive and well-designed interior. Once we go inside we feel at home there, to do our shopping, looking for nice meals, playing, watching movies or just looking around. 

The Mall of the Emirates is one of the most magnificent Malls in Dubai, its six hundred thousand square meters space is filled with shops that mostly sell international branded goods. There are more than five hundred shops located on all four floors of this Mall. However, if you do not intend to shop there, there is a cinema and a place to play at Magic Planet. When you get tired, you can choose to eat in one of the many restaurants serving a variety of food. There is local Middle Eastern food, Asian and Western food, all served in a room with nice surrounding. 

And in the midst of Dubai heat, you can play in Ski Dubai, an indoor ski hall. With a ski slope 85 meters high and 140 meters long, it is the largest in the world. The room temperature is maintained between minus one degree and two degrees Celsius, to keep the meter-high snow intact. Thus, even though the outside temperature is around 45 degrees Celsius, you can slide on the snow inside this Mall. To play here you have to buy a ticket, the price is around 70 USD, depending on the facility you choose.

 

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Source: https://www.malloftheemirates.com/en

Paris, from Pompidou Centre to La Défense

 

Strolling from the Marais area where the buildings are in the 17th century style to the Beaubourg through the narrow streets and alleys we find a huge building with a unique colorful style. It is the Pompidou Center, a multicultural complex, bringing together in one place different forms of art and literature. It houses a Public Information Library, a vast public library and the Museum of Modern Art. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977. 

Created in the style of modern architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano the building looks like of an 'inside-out' building with its structural system, mechanical systems, and circulation exposed on the exterior of the building with colorful pipes and ducts. From the outside, the visual signature of the building is embodied by the huge mechanical escalator, known as the “caterpillar”, designed to serve as a vertical outdoor path. It is the primary artery of the Pompidou Centre, serving all levels and transporting the public upwards. Its transparency provides one of the finest views of Paris, and as you travel up, it seems as though you are still strolling through the city. 

The vast plaza in front of the building forms an integral part of the Pompidou Centre and serves as a strong link between the city and the building, thus enabling the most natural flow possible between the two spaces. The plaza acts as a lung, a place of life where Parisians, tourists and onlookers cross paths. People come here to meet others, to stroll, to rest or contemplate their surroundings. In the spring, the plaza becomes more lively with carnivals, bands, and street performers. 

From the Pompidou Centre, our next trip is to another modern buildings complex in Paris, the business center of La Défense. By taking the Metro from the Hotel de Ville for about half an hour we arrive at the Esplanade Metro station, the location of La Défense. Right above the metro station stands La Grande Arche, a 110 meter cube monument designed to be a late-20th-century version of the Arc de Triomphe. Its designer Johan Otto V. Spreckelsen described it as a window onto the world. It is intended to function as a place where people with different backgrounds and cultures can meet and communicate. 

Around Le Grande Arche, La Défense contains many of the Paris urban area's tallest high-rises. There are hundreds of high-rises and buildings belonging to the top companies in the world in this area. There is also a large shopping mall, Les Quatre Temps, with 220 stores, 48 restaurants and a 24-screen movie theatre. One day is definitely not enough to explore this area! 

 

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Sources:

https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/collections/our-building

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Arche