Valbonne Sophia Antipolis, a commune near Nice in the South East of France, is made up of two areas – the village of Valbonne and Sophia Antipolis. It is in a basin alongside the Brague river, with the old village in the northwest and Sophia Antipolis in the east. In 2008, the city’s population was 12,500.

Valbonne means ‘the good valley’. The village was founded in 1519 along a grid plan and remained largely unchanged until the mid-twentieth century. In the 1970s, a technology park in Sophia Antipolis was constructed along similar lines to La Défense, near Paris. In the 1980s, the University of Nice relocated a section of its research and development division to Sophia Antipolis.

The main office of the Sustainable Urban Development European Network (SUDEN), which focuses on developing sustainable housing initiatives in a European context, is situated in Valbonne Sophia Antipolis. In November 2011, Air France announced the inauguration of its first solar energy facility in Valbonne Sophia Antipolis, with the aim of producing the equivalent of 10% of the company’s annual electricity usage.