Every design for Noisy-Le-Grand

Noisy-le-Grand rises from the left bank of the Marne, a riverside town in the eastern suburbs of Paris whose ground climbs from the water towards the woods in the south. It sits at an unusual meeting point too: the southernmost commune of Seine-Saint-Denis, bordering both Val-de-Marne and Seine-et-Marne.

That position on the edge of three departments says a lot about how the town feels: part of the Marne-la-Vallée new town, yet wrapped in green. The Bois Saint-Martin fills its southern end, the promenade along the Marne runs along the north, and in between lie the Butte Verte, the Parc Louis Antoine de Bougainville, the Jardin des Artistes and the Jardin des Sources. Across the river, the Parc départemental de la Haute-Île spreads out on the Neuilly-sur-Marne side. The name itself comes from the walnut trees that once covered the land, and the commune's postmodern architecture, the Espaces d’Abraxas among it, has appeared in films such as Brazil and The Hunger Games.

For anyone who grew up here, the map holds the riverside walks, the woods at the far end of town and the familiar way home past the parks.