Rueil-Malmaison
Encyclopedia
Rueil-Malmaison is a commune
in the western suburbs of Paris
, in the Hauts-de-Seine
department of France
. It is located 12.6 kilometers from the center of Paris
.
word ialo (meaning "clearing, glade", "place of") suffixed to a radical meaning "brook, stream" (Latin
rivus, Old French
rû), or maybe to a radical meaning "ford
" (Celtic ritu).
In 1928, the name of the commune officially became Rueil-Malmaison in reference to its most famous tourist attraction, the Château de Malmaison
, home of Napoléon
's first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais
.
The name Malmaison comes from Medieval Latin
mala mansio, meaning "ill-fated domain", "estate of ill luck". In the Early Middle Ages
Malmaison was the site of a royal residence which was destroyed by the Vikings in 846.
where Napoleon
and his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais
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.
The Rueil barracks of the Swiss Guard were constructed in 1756 under Louis XV by the architect Axel Guillaumot, and have been classifed 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
.
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
, Edouard Manet
and Claude Monet
came to paint the Seine
River which crosses the town.
Rueil is (despite the title) the principal location of the novel Loin de Rueil by the French novelist Raymond Queneau
.
, the residence of Napoléon
's first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais
, is located in Rueil-Malmaison. It is home to a Napoleonic museum.
research organisation is in Rueil. The city has also become home to many large companies moving out of La Défense
business district, located only 5 km (3.1 mi) 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
Rueil-Malmaison station
to accommodate these companies. The business district is equipped with a fiber-optic network
.
Several major French companies have their world headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as Schneider Electric
and VINCI. Schneider had its head office in Rueil-Malmaison since 2000; previously the building Schneider occupies housed the Schneider subsidiary Télémécanique.
Several large international companies have also located their French headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as ExxonMobil
, AstraZeneca
, American Express
and Unilever
.
station on Paris RER line A
.
Sister City
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
in the western suburbs of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, in the Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine is designated number 92 of the 101 départements in France. It is part of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris...
department of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It is located 12.6 kilometers from the center of Paris
Kilometre Zero
In many countries, Kilometre Zero or similar terms in other languages, is a particular location , from which distances are traditionally measured...
.
Name
Rueil-Malmaison was originally called simply Rueil. In medieval times the name Rueil was spelled either Roialum, Riogilum, Rotoialum, Ruolium, or Ruellium. This name is made of the CelticCeltic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
word ialo (meaning "clearing, glade", "place of") suffixed to a radical meaning "brook, stream" (Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
rivus, Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
rû), or maybe to a radical meaning "ford
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...
" (Celtic ritu).
In 1928, the name of the commune officially became Rueil-Malmaison in reference to its most famous tourist attraction, the Château de Malmaison
Château de Malmaison
The Château de Malmaison is a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km from Paris.It was formerly the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government.-History:Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the...
, home of Napoléon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...
.
The name Malmaison comes from Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
mala mansio, meaning "ill-fated domain", "estate of ill luck". In the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
Malmaison was the site of a royal residence which was destroyed by the Vikings in 846.
History
Rueil is famous for the Château de MalmaisonChâteau de Malmaison
The Château de Malmaison is a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km from Paris.It was formerly the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government.-History:Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the...
where Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
and his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...
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.
The Rueil barracks of the Swiss Guard were constructed in 1756 under Louis XV by the architect Axel Guillaumot, and have been classifed Monument historique
Monument historique
A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...
since 1973. The Guard was formed by Louis XIII in 1616 and massacred at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
During the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
of 1870, Rueil was located on the front line.
At the end of the 19th century, Impressionist
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
painters like Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
, Edouard Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
and Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
came to paint the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
River which crosses the town.
Rueil is (despite the title) the principal location of the novel Loin de Rueil by the French novelist Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
.
Main sights
The Château de MalmaisonChâteau de Malmaison
The Château de Malmaison is a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km from Paris.It was formerly the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government.-History:Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the...
, the residence of Napoléon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...
, is located in Rueil-Malmaison. It is home to a Napoleonic museum.
Economy
The main campus of the French Institute of PetroleumInstitut français du pétrole
The French Institute of Petroleum is a public research organisation in France founded in 1944 as Institute of Oil, Fuels and Lubricants ....
research organisation is in Rueil. The city has also become home to many large companies moving out of La Défense
La Défense
La Défense is a major business district of the Paris aire urbaine. With a population of 20,000, it is centered in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux...
business district, located only 5 km (3.1 mi) from Rueil, a trend first established by the move of Esso
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
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
The RER A is one of the five lines in the RER rapid transit system serving :Paris, France.The line runs from the western terminuses Saint-Germain-en-Laye , Cergy Le Haut , and Poissy to the eastern terminuses Boissy-Saint-Léger and Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy .* First inauguration: 12 December 1969*...
Rueil-Malmaison station
Rueil-Malmaison (Paris RER)
Rueil-Malmaison is a railway station in Rueil-Malmaison on the A1 branch of the Paris RER commuter rail line....
to accommodate these companies. The business district is equipped with a fiber-optic network
Fiber-optic communication
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information...
.
Several major French companies have their world headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric is a French global company. It was founded in 1836 by two brothers, Eugène and Adolphe Schneider.In the first part of the 20th century, Schneider et Cie associated itself with Westinghouse Systems, a major international electrical group at the time. The group began manufacturing...
and VINCI. Schneider had its head office in Rueil-Malmaison since 2000; previously the building Schneider occupies housed the Schneider subsidiary Télémécanique.
Several large international companies have also located their French headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
, AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca plc is a global pharmaceutical and biologics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's seventh-largest pharmaceutical company measured by revenues and has operations in over 100 countries...
, American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
and Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
.
Transport
Rueil-Malmaison is served by Rueil-MalmaisonRueil-Malmaison (Paris RER)
Rueil-Malmaison is a railway station in Rueil-Malmaison on the A1 branch of the Paris RER commuter rail line....
station on Paris RER line A
RER A
The RER A is one of the five lines in the RER rapid transit system serving :Paris, France.The line runs from the western terminuses Saint-Germain-en-Laye , Cergy Le Haut , and Poissy to the eastern terminuses Boissy-Saint-Léger and Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy .* First inauguration: 12 December 1969*...
.
Twin towns
| City | Region | Country | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ávila |  Castile and León |
 Spain |
|
| Bad Soden Bad Soden Bad Soden is a town and spa in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, Hesse, Germany. Population 21,412 .Bad Soden is a popular residential town for commuters working in Frankfurt am Main. It is known for its various springs, which contain carbonic acid gas and various iron oxides. The waters are used both... |
 Hesse |
 Germany |
|
| Fribourg Fribourg Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland... |
Canton of Fribourg Canton of Fribourg The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:... |
 Switzerland |
|
| Lynchburg |  Virginia |
 United States |
|
| Sergiev Posad |  Moscow Oblast |
 Russia |
|
| Timişoara Timisoara Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the... |
 Timiş CountyTimis County Timiș , , Banat Bulgarian: ) is a county of western Romania, in the historical region Banat, with the county seat at Timișoara. It is the largest county in Romania in terms of land area.... |
 Kingdom of Romania |
|
| Jelgava Jelgava -Sports:The city's main football team, FK Jelgava, plays in the Latvian Higher League and won the 2009/2010 Latvian Football Cup.- Notable people :*August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein - linguist, folklorist, ethnographer... |
Zemgale |  Latvia |
2006 |
| Zouk Mikael Zouk Mikael Zouk Mikael is a town in the Keserwan District of Mount Lebanon. The town is famous for its Ottoman era old souk, which was renovated and restored in 1995... |
 Mount Lebanon GovernorateMount Lebanon Governorate Mount Lebanon is one of the Governorates of Lebanon. Its capital is Baabda. The overwhelming majority of its population is Maronites, Greek Orthodox, and Melkite Greek Catholic Christians... |
Lebanon |
18 April 2009 |
| Bukhara Bukhara Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time... |
 Bukhara Province |
Uzbekistan |
|
| Dubrovnik Dubrovnik Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641... |
Dubrovnik-Neretva County Dubrovnik-Neretva County The Dubrovnik–Neretva County is the southernmost Croatian county located in south Dalmatia. The county seat is Dubrovnik and other large towns are Korčula, Metković, Opuzen and Ploče... |
 Independent State of Croatia |
29 January 2011 |
| Kiryat Malakhi |  South DistrictSouth District (Israel) The Southern District is one of Israel's six administrative districts, and is the largest in terms of land area as well as the most sparsely populated. It covers most of the Negev desert, as well as the Arabah valley. The population of the Southern District is 1,002,400. It is 86% Jewish and 14%... |
Israel |
1985 |
Sister City
See also
- Communes of the Hauts-de-Seine department
- Château de MalmaisonChâteau de MalmaisonThe Château de Malmaison is a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km from Paris.It was formerly the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government.-History:Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the...