Travel Guide Nanterre

Nanterre would come from the Celtic words nemeto, temple, and dor, fortress, Latinized in Nemetodurum. Located on the banks of the Seine, Nanterre is an old market garden that has become the administrative capital of the Hauts-de-Seine. It is home to the headquarters of the General Council and the Prefecture, as well as the University of Paris X and the Nanterre Amandiers National Theatre. Although its 1,220 hectares are divided by expressways, highway ramps, train and RER lines and buildings in the La Défense business district, the city has preserved traces of its past with its former farm buildings, its Sainte-Geneviève well, its 18th and 19th century buildings and its old centre around Maurice-Thorez Street, with its many small businesses. The commune, a working-class and tertiary town on the edge of La Défense, is one of the most important in the inner suburbs, with nearly 95,000 inhabitants. Today, the area located on the city in the extension of the Grande Arche de la Défense is the subject of immense work, gradually giving birth to a new district. Thus the "Paris La Défense-Arena", a huge auditorium inaugurated two years ago, is the symbol of this metamorphosis. The sector is also bristling with cranes. Already very well served by transport, the city should welcome in the coming years the extension of line E of the RER, as well as the future line 15, currently under construction.