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The name of Nanterre originated before the Roman conquest of Gaul. The Romans recorded the name as Nemetodorum. It is composed of the Celtic word nemeto meaning "shrine" or "sacred place" and the Celtic word duron (neuter) "hard, tough, enduring". The sacred place referred to is believed to have been a famous shrine that existed in ancient times.
Aug 9, 2024 · It is located on the east bank of a loop of the meandering Seine River and separated from Paris by the suburbs of Puteaux and Neuilly-sur-Seine. Nanterre was formerly a heavily industrialized inner-city suburb with automobile, tire, food, and metal industries.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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- Grande Arche
- Esplanade de La Défense
- Parc André-Malraux
- Fort Mont-Valérien
- Parc de Bagatelle
- Château de Malmaison
- Bois-Préau
- Église Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul
- Fondation Louis Vuitton
- Jardin d’Acclimatation
An avant-garde symbol for La Défense, the Grande Arche was built during the 80s when this district was really coming together. It was a collaboration between two Danes, engineer Erike Reitzel and Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, who won the design competition ordered by François Mitterrand. This 110-metre-high hollow cube is the western terminus of the...
Just the spot to get your bearings in La Défense, this gigantic plaza is like walking into a retro-futurist sci-fi movie. In the space of a couple of hundred metres there are dozens of monuments and works of contemporary street art to contemplate. It all began with the Centre of New Industries and Technologies (CNIT) from 1958, now used as a conven...
You wouldn’t imagine it today, but until the 1970s this area was rather grotty. On the site of the 25-hectare Parc André-Malraux there were slums and vacant lots, while the landscape was scarred with abandoned gypsum quarries. That changed 40 years ago, and this park was laid out around the time that La Défense was being developed. Now there are ge...
On the tallest hill in the western suburbs, Fort Mont-Valérien was erected in 1841 as one of a whole ring of fortifications to defend Paris from an invasion. Such an event came to pass during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and the fort proved to be the strongest in the city, enduring several months of artillery bombardment. Even darker days were ...
In the middle of the Bois de Boulogne is one of the four botanical gardens of Paris. The Parc de Bagatelle is set around an 18th-century château built in just 64 days in 1775 and intended as a whimsical place to stay during hunting excursions in the Bois de Boulogne. There’s a patchwork of gardens around the property, with an English country garden...
Ten minutes is all you need to get to one of the most celebrated châteaux in the Paris area. The Château de Malmaison was bought by Napoleon and Empress Joséphine as a home, and Joséphine would live there after the couple divorced until her death in 1814. The property is a snapshot of a fascinating period in French history, and at the beginning of ...
The immense grounds of the Château de Malmaison, consolidated by Joséphine at the start of the 19th century once included this park and Château. It originally belonged to a neighbour who refused to sell to Joséphine until she was found drowned in her own fountain! And now it’s an elegant location to while away a warm afternoon, in 17-hectares of En...
Draw a line under your visit to Rueil-Malmaison by calling in at this Renaissance church from the turn of the 17th century. There’s some rich decoration inside, especially the gilded bronze bas-relief in the choir depicting the Descent of the Cross. But the main appeal here is the church’s imperial heritage. The tomb Joséphine de Beauharnais is her...
A new addition to the Paris cultural scene every bit as bold as the Pompidou Centre 40 years ago, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is at the top end of the Bois de Boulogne. This weird edifice was designed by Frank Gehry, and looks a bit like a futuristic vehicle or mechanical monster. The museum is mostly for short-term exhibitions of contemporary and ...
It was Napoleon III who opened this amusement park in the Bois de Boulogne in 1852. More than 160 years later the park is still a hit with kids, and has an old-world innocence about it. Just look at the sort of entertainment available here: Pantomime, carousels, miniature train, puppet shows, pony rides and boat trips on an “enchanted river”. There...
Nanterre (the ancient Nemptodurum or Nemetodurum) owes its origin to the shrine of Ste Genevieve (420-512), the patron-saint of Paris, whose name is still associated with various places in the town and district. The shrine is the object of a pilgrimage in September.
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