DOSSIER - Dubai: delusions of grandeur

While the world's tallest tower towers over 900 skyscrapers in the middle of the desert, and shopping centres are springing up all over the place, Dubai is gradually adopting a more bourgeois bohemian spirit. Art galleries, trendy cafés and trendy boutiques are opening in the heart of former warehouses, in parks... A cosmopolitan lifestyle is emerging as the city-state becomes a commercial, air, port, tourist and financial hub between Asia, the Middle East and Europe. By 2020, the emirate is set to offer more than 80,000 hotel rooms, most of them four- and five-star, as well as new metro lines and a new convention centre to host the next World Expo, possibly in November. Report Cécile Balavoine - Photos Bruno Pérousse