In France, the war had caused far greater destruction. Out of necessity, post-war housing shortages were dealt with by creating new expansion neighbourhoods in existing cities. From the beginning of the 1950s, the grands ensembles rose from the ground here: large-scale housing complexes in high-rise blocks of flats. It was only as a result of economic growth and increasing prosperity in the 1960s that opportunities were created for new concepts. Led by Paul Delouvrier, a high-ranking government official, work was carried out from the beginning of the 1960s on a new expansion plan for Paris. In 1965, the ‘Schema Directeur d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme de la Région de Paris’ was established. The proposal was to channel growth along a number of development axes, accentuated by five villes nouvelles in the Paris region. In 1966, Delouvrier commissioned the Institut pour l’Aménagement d’Urbanisme de la Région de l’Ile de France (IAURIF), which he had set up in 1961, to produce a study into new towns abroad, because there was not sufficient knowledge about them in France. *  The study came to the conclusion that there were three models, globally speaking: the British model of the isolated living colony, the Scandinavian (and Dutch) model of the suburb and the model of the economic exploitation colony, developed mainly in the Soviet Union and subsequently spread worldwide. France would need to find a middle course. The ville nouvelle model was further elaborated between 1966 and 1969 for application throughout France. Ultimately, in the period from 1971 to 1988, five were built around Paris and four in the rest of the country.

A significant difference with the British new towns was that the French villes nouvelles were not isolated colonies, but points of concentration in a suburban landscape around an existing city, the region urbaine. Furthermore, the living-and-working function would be less central, but the aim would be to realize a fully-fledged urban milieu with a high level of facilities. And although there was strong direction by national government, just as in the British model, there was more room for local administration. * 

The problem with the French villes nouvelles was that they were a product of the expansionist and prosperous 1960s, but they were realized in a period of economic crisis and dropping population growth. The first oil crisis plunged the West into an economic recession. Furthermore, various demographic developments led to an unexpectedly strong
reduction in population growth. So the plans had to be continually adjusted. The concept, and in particular the underlying model of axial expansion, turned out to be sufficiently flexible. *  The upcoming market thinking of the 1980s was translated into concepts such as l’Isle d’Abeau, themed as a development centre for the rising high-tech industry.