Hauts-de-Seine

Département in the Ile-de-France region of northern France; area 175 sq km/68 sq mi; population (1999 est) 1,428,900. Situated to the west of Paris, Hauts-de-Seine is made up of the outer western and northwestern suburbs of the capital. Here, major new residential estates have been built to replace older housing. Many manufacturing industries were sited within the département, including a major automobile factory (Renault) at Billancourt on the Seine (now closed), and a fine-porcelain works at Sèvres. Increasingly, the emphasis is on office work. There are extensive wooded areas, including the Forêt de Meudon and the Parc de St-Cloud. Fast road and railway links connect Hauts-de-Seine to central Paris.

Hauts-de-Seine came into being following the administrative reforms of 1964. Striking modern architecture characterizes the urban renewal undertaken at the departmental capital of Nanterre and at the commercial centre of La Défense.

A National Memorial of Fighting France, commemorating the execution of 4,500 people by the Germans during World War II, has been built at a disused fort at Mount Valérien where the executions took place.