Every design for Clichy

At the Place de la République-François-Mitterrand, roads fan out towards the Clichy - Levallois station, the Gennevilliers bridge and Saint-Ouen, and most of Clichy seems to pass through at some point in the day. It is a working town: L'Oréal, Bic, Monoprix and Sony France all have their headquarters here, and the quays along the Seine carry a steady stream of traffic.

Clichy lies on the Seine at the north-western edge of Paris, bordered by Levallois-Perret, Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine and the 17th arrondissement, with Asnières-sur-Seine and the Château d'Asnières across the water. It is a small commune but an old one: Dagobert I made it the Merovingian capital, and Saint Vincent de Paul, once its parish priest, oversaw the building of its church. The Pavillon de Vendôme belongs to that older layer. Plenty of people still call the town Clichy-la-Garenne, after the hunting preserve its plain once was.

Walk down to the river at the end of the day and you see the detail that defines it: the long quay where the town meets the Seine, and Asnières waiting on the other bank.