Rueil-Malmaison owes its name to the château de Malmaison, bought in 1799 by Joséphine de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The house, remodelled by the architects Percier and Fontaine, served as the seat of the French government from 1800 to 1802, and Joséphine laid out there a botanical garden famous for its roses. The parc de Bois-Préau extends the estate, and the church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul holds the empress's tomb. That imperial past remains the town's signature and gives it a heritage identity rare for a suburban municipality.
The largest town in the Hauts-de-Seine, Rueil-Malmaison rises from the heights of the Mont-Valérien and the Buzenval hillsides, to the east, down to the banks of the Seine, to the north. It has around 78 000 inhabitants and is organised into villages that each keep their own character, from the historic town centre around the place de l'Église and the rue Paul Doumer to the suburban house districts of the west and south. That village structure, its parks and the quality of its building stock make it a sought-after residential town in western Paris.
The town is served by the RER A station, which reaches central Paris and La Défense in about fifteen minutes and gave rise to the Rueil-sur-Seine business district, near the station. The A86 motorway rings the town and the T2 tramway serves neighbouring Suresnes. That accessibility, coupled with the proximity of La Défense, supports an active property market, driven by families and professionals looking for a residential setting without moving far from Paris.
