Every design for Colombes

Colombes is known as the great town of houses and gardens in the inner ring around Paris, the largest suburb of detached homes in the petite couronne, set on the northern loop of the Seine in Hauts-de-Seine. Daily life moves along the Transilien line to Paris-Saint-Lazare, with four stops in or near town at Colombes, Le Stade, La Garenne-Colombes and Les Vallées.

What makes Colombes unusual is how much of its old shape it has kept despite losing land: Bois-Colombes and La Garenne-Colombes were both carved out of it, leaving a town two-thirds its former size. The railways and industry still drew it into the modern age, and Oracle has its head office on boulevard Charles-de-Gaulle, yet the streets of houses remain. Even the name carries a story, from the Latin for column, after a megalithic stone or the pillars of a ruined Gallo-Roman villa.

And there is the Parc Pierre-Lagravère down by the river, where the town opens out onto the Seine. That green edge of the map is the one locals would pick to wear.