Rueil-Malmaison () is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the western suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

. It is located from the centre of

. In 2017, it had a population of 78,152. It is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Paris.

Name

Rueil-Malmaison was originally called simply Rueil. In medieval times the name Rueil was spelled either , , , , or . This name is made of the Celtic word (meaning 'clearing, glade' or 'place of') suffixed to a radical meaning 'brook, stream' ( la, rivus, fro, rû), or maybe to a radical meaning '

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

' (Celtic ). In 1928, the name of the commune officially became Rueil-Malmaison in reference to its most famous tourist attraction, the

Château de Malmaison The Château de Malmaison () is a French château situated near the left bank of the Seine, about west of the centre of Paris, in the commune of Rueil-Malmaison. Formerly the residence of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, along with the Tui ...

, home of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's first wife

Joséphine de Beauharnais Josephine may refer to: People * Josephine (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Josephine (singer), a Greek pop singer Places *Josephine, Texas, United States *Mount Josephine (disambiguation) * Josephine Cou ...

. The name Malmaison comes from

Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functione ...

, meaning 'ill-fated domain', 'estate of ill luck'. In the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

Malmaison was the site of a royal residence which was destroyed by the Vikings in 846.

History

Eglise Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul Rueil-Malmaison

The Rueil barracks of the

Swiss Guard The Pontifical Swiss Guard (also Papal Swiss Guard or simply Swiss Guard; la, Pontificia Cohors Helvetica; it, Guardia Svizzera Pontificia; german: Päpstliche Schweizergarde; french: Garde suisse pontificale; rm, Guardia svizra papala) is ...

were constructed in 1756 under Louis XV by the architect Axel Guillaumot, and have been classified '' Monument historique'' since 1973. The Guard was formed by Louis XIII in 1616 and massacred at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. Rueil is famous for the

where

and his first wife

lived. Upon her death in 1814, she was buried at the nearby Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church, which stands at the centre of the city. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Rueil was located on the front line. At the end of the 19th century, Impressionist painters like Pierre-Auguste Renoir,

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bo ...

and

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...

came to paint the Seine River which crosses the town.

Population

Sights

The

, the residence of Napoléon's first wife

, is located in Rueil-Malmaison. It is home to a Napoleonic museum. File:2011 Chateau de Malmaison recto-verso.jpg, The

, recto, verso File:Château de Malmaison - Appartement de Joséphine 001.jpg, Bedroom of

and Napoléon File:Château de Malmaison - Salle de billard 001.jpg, Billiard room File:Château de Malmaison - Bibliothèque 001.jpg, Library of

File:Château de Malmaison - Salle à manger 002.jpg, Dining room

Economy

The main campus of the French Institute of Petroleum research organisation is in Rueil. The city has also become home to many large companies moving out of La Défense business district, located only from Rueil, a trend first established by the move of Esso headquarters to Rueil. There are about 850 service sector companies located in Rueil, 70 of which employ more than 100 people. A business district called ''Rueil-sur-Seine'' (previously known as "Rueil 2000") was created near the

RER A RER A is one of the five lines in the Réseau Express Régional (English: Regional Express Network), a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving Paris, France and its suburbs. The line crosses the region from east to west, with all t ...

Rueil-Malmaison station to accommodate these companies. The business district is equipped with a

fiber-optic network Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is pr ...

. Several major French companies have their world headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as

Schneider Electric Schneider Electric SE is a French multinational company that specializes in digital automation and energy management. It addresses homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automatio ...

and VINCI. Schneider had its head office in Rueil-Malmaison since 2000; previously the building Schneider occupies housed the Schneider subsidiary Télémécanique.Schneider-Electric s'est installé chez une filiale
"

. Retrieved on 8 July 2010. Several large international companies have also located their French headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as ExxonMobil,

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includi ...

, American Express and

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

Infrastructure

Transportation

Rueil-Malmaison is served by Rueil-Malmaison station on

. In the future, the commune will be served by Rueil – Suresnes – Mont Valérien station on Line 15 of the Grand Paris Express (GPE), which will be located on the border with the commune of

Suresnes Suresnes () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,145 as of 2016. The nearest communes are Nanterre, Puteaux, Rueil-Malmaison, Saint-Cloud a ...

, as well as a western extension of

Île-de-France tramway Line 1 Île-de-France tramway Line 1 (usually called simply T1) is part of the modern tram network of the Île-de-France region of France. Line T1 connects Noisy-le-Sec station and Asnières-sur-Seine with a suburban alignment running in parallel to ...

Healthcare

The Stell Hospital, a teaching hospital of

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sor ...

, is located in Rueil-Malmaison.

Education

Public schools: * 15 preschools * 15 elementary schools * Six junior high schools: Les Bons-Raisins, Henri-Dunant, La Malmaison, Les Martinets, Marcel-Pagnol, Jules-Verne * Two senior high schools: Lycée Richelieu, Lycée polyvalent Gustave-Eiffel Private schools: * * Collège et lycée Madeleine-Daniélou * Collège Notre-Dame * École maternelle et élémentaire Saint-Charles-Notre Dame * Ecole maternelle élémentaire Charles-Peguy * Ecole Montessori Bilingue de Rueil-Malmaison There are tertiary educational institutions in the area. Engineering College: * IFP School

Notable residents

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

and his wife, Jany Le Pen, used to live in a two-story house on Rue Hortense * N'Golo Kanté grew up in a small flat with his family in Rueil-Malmaison

Twin towns and sister cities

Rueil-Malmaison is twinned with: * Ávila, Spain *

Bad Soden Bad Soden (; also: ''Bad Soden am Taunus'') is a town and spa in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, Hessen, Germany. It had a population of 22,563 , up from 21,412 in 2005. Information Bad Soden is a residential town for commuters working in Frankfurt am ...

, Germany * Le Bardo, Tunisia * Bukhara, Uzbekistan, since 1999 *

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

, Croatia, since 2011 * Elmbridge, England, United Kingdom *

Fribourg , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () ...

, Switzerland * Helsingør, Denmark *

Jelgava Jelgava (; german: Mitau, ; see also other names) is a state city in central Latvia about southwest of Riga with 55,972 inhabitants (2019). It is the largest town in the region of Zemgale (Semigalia). Jelgava was the capital of the united Du ...

, Latvia, since 2006 *

Kiryat Malakhi Kiryat Malakhi ( he, קִרְיַת מַלְאָכִי, also Qiryat Malakhi or Kiryat Malachi) is a city in the Southern District of Israel, from Ashkelon. In it had a population of . Its jurisdiction is 4,632 dunams (~4.6 km2). Histor ...

, Israel, since 1985 * Kitzbühel, Austria, since 1979 * Lynchburg, United States *

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

, Mexico *

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina * Sergiyev Posad, Russia, since 1989 *

Timișoara ), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor) , image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg , map_caption = Location in Timiș County , pushpin_map = Romania#Europe , pushpin_ ...

, Romania * Tōgane, Japan, since 1990 *

Zouk Mikael Zouk Mikael ( ar, زوق مكايل, also spelled Zuq Mikha'il or Zouk Mkayel) is a town and municipality in the Keserwan District of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate in Lebanon. Its inhabitants are predominantly Melkite and Maronite Catholics. The ...

, Lebanon, since 2009

References

External links

Rueil-Malmaison Official website

official Tourist Board of Rueil Malmaison
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rueilmalmaison Communes of Hauts-de-Seine