La Defense

Served by six high-capacity rail lines (RER A, RER E, Metro Line 1, Transilien lines L and U, and Tramway T2), numerous bus and coach routes, and soon by two new stations on Line 15 of the Grand Paris Express, and possibly by Line 18, which would connect it directly to Orly Airport and the Paris-Saclay research-intensive and business cluster, home to the HEC Paris and École Polytechnique campus, amongst other institutions, La Défense is one of the main transport hubs in the Paris region.

In 2025, La Défense was home to 2,800 companies, around 200,000 employees, 75,000 students and 50,000 residents, spread across 61 high-rise buildings. In 1981, the opening of Les Quatre Temps, still the most visited shopping centre in France (220 stores, 48 restaurants and a 24-screen movie theatre), established it as a major commercial hub in the Paris region. Plenitude Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe, was inaugurated in 2017.