15th arrondissement of Paris

"15th arrondissement" redirects here. For the district of Marseille, see 15th arrondissement of Marseille.

The 15th arrondissement of Paris (French: XV^e arrondissement) is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as le quinzième ('the fifteenth').

15th arrondissement of Paris
Municipal arrondissement
Place Georges-Mulot with the Fontaine du Puits de Grenelle at its centre
Coat of arms
Location within Paris
Coordinates: 48°50′29″N 2°18′01″E
Country	France
Region	Île-de-France
Department	Paris
Commune	Paris
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Philippe Goujon (LR)
Area	8.50 km2 (3.28 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[1]	228,754
• Density	26,912/km2 (69,700/sq mi)
INSEE code	75115

The 15th arrondissement, called Vaugirard, is situated on the left bank of the River Seine. Sharing the Montparnasse district with the 6th and 14th arrondissements, it is the city's most populous arrondissement, with a population of 229,472 as of 2020. Tour Montparnasse – the tallest skyscraper in Paris – and the neighbouring Gare Montparnasse are both located in the 15th arrondissement, at its border with the 14th.

It is also home to the high-rise Beaugrenelle district and the Front de Seine riverside development, as well as the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles convention centre, where the 180-metre Tour Triangle is set to house a 120-room hotel and 70,000 square metres (750,000 sq ft) of office space in 2026.^[2] Close is the Héliport de Paris, the city heliport, just nearby the border with Issy-les-Moulineaux.

History

The loi du 16 juin 1859 decreed the annexation to Paris of the area between the old Wall of the Ferme générale and the Wall of Thiers. The communes of Grenelle, Vaugirard and Javel were incorporated into Paris in 1860.^{[citation needed]}

Politician Charles Michels (born 1903) was elected a deputy for the 15th arrondissement under the Popular Front; he was taken hostage and shot by the Nazis in 1941. A Métro station and street now bear his name.

Quarters

As in all the Parisian arrondissements, the fifteenth is made up of four administrative quarters (quartiers).

The four administrative quarters of the 15th arrondissement.

• To the south, quartier Saint-Lambert occupies the former site of the village of Vaugirard, built along an ancient Roman road. The geography of the area was particularly suited to wine-making, as well as quarrying. In fact, many Parisian monuments, such as the École Militaire, were built from Vaugirard stone. The village, not yet being part of Paris, was considered by Parisians to be an agreeable suburb, pleasant for country walks or its cabarets and puppet shows. In 1860 Vaugirard was annexed to Paris, along with adjoining villages. Today, notable attractions in this area include the Parc des Expositions (an exhibition centre which hosts the Foire de Paris, agricultural expositions, in addition to car shows) and Parc Georges-Brassens, a park built on the former site of a slaughterhouse where every year wine by the name of Clos des Morillons is produced and auctioned at the civic centre.
• To the east, quartier Necker was originally an uninhabited space between Paris and Vaugirard. The most well-known landmarks in the area are the Gare Montparnasse train station and the looming Tour Montparnasse office tower. The area around the train station has been renovated and now contains a number of office and apartment blocks, a park (the Jardin Atlantique, built directly over the train tracks), and a shopping centre. Finally, the quartier contains a number of public buildings: the Lycée Buffon, the Necker Children's Hospital, as well as the private foundation Pasteur Institute.
• To the north, quartier Grenelle was originally a village of the same name. Grenelle plain extended from the current Hôtel des Invalides to the suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux on the other side of the Seine, but remained mostly uninhabited in centuries past due to difficulties farming the land. At the beginning of the 19th century, an entrepreneur by the name of Violet divided off a section of the plain: this became the village of Beaugrenelle, known for its series of straight streets and blocks, which remain today. The whole area broke off from the commune of Vaugirard in 1830, becoming the commune of Grenelle, which was in turn annexed to Paris in 1860. A century later, a number of apartment and office towers were built along the Seine, the Front de Seine along with the Beaugrenelle shopping mall.
• To the west, quartier Javel lies to the south of Grenelle plain. In years past, it was the industrial area of the arrondissement: first with chemical companies (the famous Eau de Javel bleach was invented and produced there), then electrical companies (Thomson), and finally car manufacturers (Citroën), whose factories occupied a large part of the quartier up until the early 1970s. The industrial areas have since been rehabilitated; the neighbourhood now contains Parc André-Citroën, Georges Pompidou European Hospital, and a number of large office buildings and television studios (Sagem, Snecma, the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile, StudioCanal, France Télévisions, etc.). In addition, to the south of the circular highway (boulevard périphérique), an extension of the 15th, formerly an aerodrome at the beginning of the 20th century, is now a heliport, a gym and a recreation centre.

Musée Pasteur

The early airfield here has been encroached upon by urban development and a sports centre, but the residual area, mainly laid to grass, continues to serve Paris as a heliport. The Sécurité Civile has a detachment there close to maintenance facilities. Customs facilities are available and especially busy during the Salon d'Aeronautique airshows held at Le Bourget on the other side of the city.

Geography

Mairie du XV^e arrondissement near Vaugirard Métro station

The 15th arrondissement is located in the southwestern part of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. It includes one of the three islands in Paris, the Île aux Cygnes ('Isle of Swans'), on the border with the 16th arrondissement. It also borders the 6th, 7th and 14th arrondissements.

At 8.5 km² (3.3 sq mi), it is the third-largest arrondissement in Paris; it would be the largest if the large parks Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were not counted as part of the 16th and 12th arrondissements, respectively.

• 
  Paris – Pont Mirabeau detail
• 
  Colonnes d'eau, Parc André-Citroën
• 
  Paris XV, Rue Alain Chartier, Wallace fountain
• 
  Statue of Liberty (with the Eiffel Tower in background)
• 
  Cristaux. Jean-Yves Lechevallier
• 
  Tour Montparnasse
• 
  Parc Georges-Brassens

Demographics

Historical population

Year (of French censuses)	Population	Density (inh. per km2)
1872	75,449	8,874
1954	250,124	29,419
1962 (peak of population)	250,551	29,470
1968	244,080	28,709
1975	231,301	27,205
1982	225,596	26,534
1990	223,940	26,340
1999	225,362	26,507
2009	236,491	27,888

Places of interest

• 
  Saint-Christophe-de-Javel, Paris
• 
  Keller swimming pool
• 
  Citroën models
• 
  Panoramic restaurant
• 
  Péniche Thalassa, Quai André-Citroën
• 
  Pont de Bir-Hakeim
• 
  France Télévisions

• Saint-Christophe-de-Javel, Paris

La musique (Musée Bourdelle)

• Grand Pavois de Paris (1971), one of the largest real estate complexes in Paris
• Musée Pasteur^[3]
• Musée du Service des Objets Trouvés
• Musée Bourdelle
• Musée Mendjisky, specialising in School of Paris artists, housed in a Robert Mallet-Stevens building.^[4]
• Musée Jean Moulin, French Resistance – (musées Leclerc-Moulin)^[5]
• Church of Notre-Dame de la Salette in Paris
• Synagogue of Chasseloup-Laubat
• Beaugrenelle Shopping Centre^[6]
• Parts of the Montparnasse area.
• The former workshop (no longer standing) of Constantin Brâncuși, where the sculptor worked from 1925 to 1957 has now been relocated in front of the Centre Georges Pompidou
• Villa Santos Dumont where Ossip Zadkine and Fernand Léger^[7] had their workshop, also featured in Gail Albert Halaban book Out of my Window, Paris.^[8]
• La Ruche
• Square Béla Bartók where the sculpture-fountain Cristaux by Jean-Yves Lechevallier can be seen.
• Square de l'Oiseau-Lunaire, featuring a sculpture by Juan Miró (the L'Oiseau Lunaire) with a plaque commemorating the many artists, poets and painters or sculptors who lived there, including André Masson, Jean Dubuffet, Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos.
• A replica of the statue of Liberty on the île aux Cygnes where Bartholdi worked.
• The Pont de Bir-Hakeim
• The Pont Mirabeau
• The Parc André-Citroën with the Ballon de Paris^[9]
• The Parc Georges-Brassens
• The Polypores Fountain by Jean-Yves Lechevallier featured in the movie by Alain Resnais Same Old Song.
• The Paris Expo Porte de Versailles exhibition centre (with the Tour Triangle project) and Palais des Sports, near Porte de Versailles Métro station
• The Front de Seine high-rise district
• The Cheminée du Front de Seine, a 130 m (430 ft) chimney, the 4th tallest structure in Paris

Government and infrastructure

• At one time the head office of the Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents was in the 15th arrondissement.^[10]
• Since November 2015 the French Ministère des Armées ("Ministry of the Armed Forces") has been located in purpose-built building near the Balard Métro station.^[11]
• Australian Embassy
• Japanese Cultural Centre in Paris^[12]
• Institut Français^[13]

Economy

Art Nouveau building, detailed view

• The headquarters of Orange S.A. and Eutelsat are located in the 15th arrondissement.^[14]
• La Poste, the French mail service, has its head office in the arrondissement.^[15][16]
• The publisher Hachette Livre also has its headquarters in the arrondissement.^[17]
• Prior to the completion of the current Air France headquarters in Tremblay-en-France in December 1995,^[18][19] Air France was headquartered in a tower located next to the Gare Montparnasse rail station in Montparnasse and in the 15th arrondissement; Air France had its headquarters in the tower for about 30 years.^[20][21][22]
• Previously Tour Maine-Montparnasse housed the executive management of Accor.^[23]
• Journal officiel de la République française
• French Football Federation
• Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel
• Safran
• Institut français des relations internationales
• European Space Agency
• International Energy Agency
• Eutelsat
• France Télévisions
• International Council of Museums
• Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou

• 
  Palais des Sports de Paris
• 
  Marché de la rue de la Convention
• 
  Île aux Cygnes and St Christophe Church
• 
  Entrance to "La Ruche"
• 
  European Hospital Georges-Pompidou, Hall
• 
  Marché du livre ancien Georges Brassens
• 
  Balloon "Air de Paris"

Education and research

Panthéon-Assas University – Vaugirard

• Schiller International University has a campus in the arrondissement. It is in proximity to Place de la Convention.^[24]
• The arrondissement is also host to the École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel international school and the international bilingual school, Victor Hugo^[25]
• International Culinary school Le Cordon Bleu, established in 1895, has a campus in the 15th (rue Léon Delhomme)^[26]
• Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital affiliated to the University of Paris Descartes, (pediatrics)
• Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Saint Charles Campus - Visual arts and aesthetics.^[27]
• Panthéon-Assas University, Campus Vaugirard, Law school
• PariSanté Campus
• Pasteur Institute
• Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie

Notable people

Brigitte Bardot – 1962

Louis Pasteur by Félix Nadar in 1878

• Édouard Balladur, politician, Prime Minister of France (1993–1995)
• Brigitte Bardot, actress
• Samuel Beckett, writer, who lived in the 15th arrondissement for most of his adult life
• Walter Benjamin, philosopher
• Luc Besson, filmmaker
• Antoine Bourdelle, artist
• Alexander Calder, artist
• Marc Chagall, artist
• Barbara Chase-Riboud, artist
• Dietrich von Choltitz, military governor of Paris, 1944–1945
• André Citroën, industrialist
• Robert Desnos, poet and member of the French Resistance
• Michel Foucault, philosopher
• Tsuguharu Foujita, artist
• Rebecca Hampton, actress and television presenter
• François Hollande, President of France (2012–2017), lived in the 15th arrondissement.
• René Magritte, artist
• Sophie Marceau, actress
• André Masson, artist
• Henry Miller, writer, lived in the 15th where he worked on Tropic of Cancer.^[28]
• Joan Miró, artist
• Jacques Monod and Francois Jacob discovered the mechanism of genes' transcription regulation, a work honored by the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Luc Montagnier, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and colleagues discovered the two HIV viruses that cause AIDS, in 1983 and 1985, were honored by the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Nekfeu, hip-hop artist
• Louis Pasteur, microbiologist
• Marie-Claire Pauwels, journalist
• Ossip Zadkine, artist

See also

• Front de Seine

References

1. "Populations de référence 2022" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 19 December 2024.
2. "Porte de Versailles Exhibition Centre". Paris Digest. 2018. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
3. "Pasteur Museum". Institut Pasteur. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
4. Leroy, Christophe. "Musée Mendjisky-Ecoles de Paris". FMEP (in French). Retrieved 11 August 2017.
5. "Musée du Général Leclerc et de la Libération de Paris – Musée Jean Moulin". Musées Leclerc Moulin (in French). Retrieved 11 August 2017.
6. "Beaugrenelle". beaugrenelle-paris.com. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
7. "Rue et villa Santos-Dumont". Gavroche père & fils (in French). 18 November 2010. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
8. "Villa Santos-Dumont, 15th arrondissement, Paris, 2013". Aperture.org. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
9. "Ballon Generali". Paris Tourist Office. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
10. "Accident Report, 17 March 1982" (PDF). Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents (in French). Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2012. 246, rue Lecourbe 75732 PARIS – France.
11. Hohenadel, Kristin (13 November 2015). "France's New Defense Building, Inspired by the Pentagon, Is...a Hexagon". Slate. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
12. "Mentions legales". Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris (in French). Retrieved 11 August 2017. 101 bis, quai Branly, 75015 Paris.
13. "Contact". Institut Français (in French). Retrieved 11 August 2017.
14. "Legal Matters". Orange. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
15. "Contact Us". La Poste. Archived from the original on 13 January 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2010. La Poste laposte.com V603 44 bd de Vaugirard 75015 Paris – France.
16. "Mentions légales". La Poste (in French). Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2010. Siège social ("Headquarters") : 44 boulevard de Vaugirard – 75757 PARIS CEDEX 15.
17. "Home". Hachette Livre. Retrieved 17 April 2011. Hachette Livre 43, quai de Grenelle 75905 Paris Cedex 15.
18. "Air France Head Quarters – Roissypole" (PDF). Groupement d'Etudes et de Méthodes d'Ordonnancement (GEMO) (in French). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
19. "Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle". Tremblay-en-France (in French). Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
20. Salpukas, Agis (27 December 1992). "Air France's Big Challenge". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 June 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
21. "World Airline Directory". Flight International. Vol. 108, no. 3445. 20 March 1975. p. 466.
22. Mlekuz, Nathalie (2 April 1997). "Air France vole vers ses avions, destination Roissy". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 22 September 2009.
23. "Address book". Accor. Archived from the original on 17 October 2006. Retrieved 19 March 2012. Executive Management Tour Maine-Montparnasse 33, avenue du Maine 75755 Paris Cedex 15 France.
24. "Schiller Paris". Schiller International University. Retrieved 28 August 2011. Schiller International University 9, rue Yvart 75015 – Paris FRANCE.
25. "EIB Victor Hugo School". EIB Paris. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
26. "Why this culinary arts and hospitality management school?". Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
27. "Visual arts and aesthetics" (PDF). Pantheon-Sorbonne University. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
28. "Henry Miller & Richard Galen Osborn's apartment". PBase. Retrieved 11 August 2017.

Further reading

• Vallois, Thirza (1999). Around and About Paris: Vol.3: New Horizons: Haussmann's Annexation (Arrondissements 13–20). Iliad Books. pp. 80–104. ISBN 978-0-9525378-2-3. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
• Pringle-Harris, Ann (2 November 1997). "The 15th, a World of Its Own". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2015.

External links

• 15th arrondissement travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Paris 15ème arrondissement on Move On