France · Île-de-France · Asnières-sur-Seine
La Defense, Asnières-sur-Seine — Area Guide & Where to Stay
La Défense is a business quarter beyond the Seine's last Parisian loop, where the Grande Arche closes the axis from the Arc de Triomphe.
About La Defense
Where to stay in La Defense
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Rooms here answer to the towers. Cœur Défense and its neighbours fill the quarter with weekday business travel, so hotel demand peaks midweek and thins once the offices empty for the weekend. The Grande Arche is the landmark most guests navigate by.
Guests who want a lived-in street instead can look to Puteaux, Courbevoie or La Garenne-Colombes, the communes that ring this ground and keep their own parish churches.
About La Defense
What are the main landmarks in La Defense?
The Grande Arche is the set piece. It closes the axis formed by the Champs-Élysées, the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe, arriving on the far side of the last Parisian loop of the Seine. Cœur Défense rises among the office blocks behind it.
Parish churches ring the edges: Église Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul de Courbevoie, Église Sainte-Mathilde de Puteaux and the église Notre-Dame-de-Pitié, with the Paul Gaudin Museum among them. Sport and swimming take much of the remaining list, from the Palais des sports and the piscine des 2 Coupoles to the stade Marcel Payen.
What is the history of La Defense?
The plan dates from 1958. What followed was an evolving central scheme rather than one finished design, and the high-rise offices and flats went up in stages on the ground beyond the river. Business followed the buildings.
The headquarters gathered here include those of the Paris Bourse, trading as Euronext, and the European Banking Authority, alongside French and foreign multinationals. Around it, Courbevoie, Puteaux and La Garenne-Colombes carry on as separate communes.
Where is La Defense?
La Défense stands on the far bank of the Seine's last Parisian loop, inside Île-de-France, with Puteaux and Courbevoie pressed against it.
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Updated August 2026