Every design for Évry-Courcouronnes

Évry-Courcouronnes is known as the home of the Genopole, the biotech research campus that put this southern suburb of Paris on the scientific map, and as the prefecture of Essonne. The commune itself is young: it was created on 1 January 2019, when Évry and Courcouronnes merged into one.

What makes it unusual is how many different towns live inside it. There is the City Centre around the Agora, the Pyramids, Bras-de-Fer on the Corbeil-Essonnes side, Aguado and the older streets of Évry-Village, each with its own character, all tied together by RER D, the T12 tram and the A6. Arianespace and Courtepaille have their headquarters here, the University of Évry Val d'Essonne and several engineering and business schools fill the campuses, and the Parc du Lac in Courcouronnes offers a walking trail around a small lake. Its strangest resident is La Dame du lac, the climbing wall Pierre Szekely designed in 1975, closed to the public for years yet still famous. The Musée Paul Delouvrier and the Lavoir Aguado add their own pieces of local history.

If this is your town, you know exactly which neighbourhood you belong to. Wear the whole map anyway.