Rueil-Malmaison

Rueil-Malmaison or simply Rueil is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. It is located 12.6 km from the centre of Paris. 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 Roialum, Riogilum, Rotoialum, Ruolium, or Ruellium. This name is made of the Celtic word ialo (meaning 'clearing, glade' or 'place of') suffixed to a radical meaning 'brook, stream' (rivus, 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 Napoleon'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.

History


The Rueil barracks of the Swiss Guard 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.

Rueil is famous for the Château de Malmaison 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.

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 and Claude Monet came to paint the Seine River which crosses the town.

Sights
The Château de Malmaison, the residence of Napoléon's first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, is located in Rueil-Malmaison. It is home to a Napoleonic museum.

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 5 km 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.

Transportation
Rueil-Malmaison is served by Rueil-Malmaison station on RER A. 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, as well as a western extension of Île-de-France tramway Line 1.

Healthcare
The Stell Hospital, a teaching hospital of Sorbonne University, is located in Rueil-Malmaison.

Museums
The area has a local history museum the Musée d'histoire locale de Rueil-Malmaison. Since 21 May 2016 it has been home to the Ancient Egyptian mummy of a 5 year old called Ta-Iset.

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
 * Ecole Montessori Bilingue de Rueil-Malmaison

There are tertiary educational institutions in the area.

Engineering College:
 * IFP School

Notable residents

 * Jean-Marie Le Pen 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 – sister cities
Rueil-Malmaison is twinned with:


 * 🇪🇸 Ávila, Spain
 * 🇩🇪 Bad Soden, Germany
 * 🇹🇳 Le Bardo, Tunisia
 * 🇺🇿 Bukhara, Uzbekistan, since 1999
 * Dubrovnik, Croatia, since 2011
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Elmbridge, England, United Kingdom
 * Fribourg, Switzerland
 * Helsingør, Denmark
 * 🇱🇻 Jelgava, Latvia, since 2006
 * 🇮🇱 Kiryat Malakhi, Israel, since 1 June 1985
 * 🇦🇹 Kitzbühel, Austria, since 1979
 * 🇺🇸 Lynchburg, United States
 * 🇲🇽 Oaxaca, Mexico
 * 🇧🇦 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * 🇷🇺 Sergiyev Posad, Russia, since 1989
 * 🇷🇴 Timișoara, Romania
 * 🇯🇵 Tōgane, Japan, since 1990
 * 🇱🇧 Zouk Mikael, Lebanon, since 2009