La Défense

About

La Défense is a business district located in the metropolis of Greater Paris in Île-de-France, the second most attractive business district in Europe, after the City of London, and fourth in the world. The neighbourhood is home to the headquarters of many French and foreign companies as well as the European banking authority. It is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, on the territories of the communes of Puteaux, Courbevoie, Nanterre and La Garenne-Colombes, at the western end of the historical axis which begins at the Louvre Palace and continues through the avenue des Champs-Élysées, the arch of triumph of the Star and beyond to the bridge of Neuilly and the Arch of Defense.

Built since the 1960s, Defence is mostly made up of high-rise buildings, mainly consisting of offices (approximately 3 million square metres). La Défense, however, is a mixed district: it accommodates 600,000 m2 of housing and the opening of the Les Quatre Temps shopping centre in 1981 made it a major commercial hub in Île-de-France. In 2025, there were 2,800 businesses, about 200,000 employees, 70,000 students...