Silicon valley à la française

Why France is taking a lesson in culture from Silicon Valley

PARIS — One thousand start-ups in a refurbished train depot as long as the Eiffel Tower lying down. Rooms scattered with Legos and beanbag chairs. Elevated walkways bridging cargo-container offices and open-air desks. Graffitied railway cars transformed into cafes.

The vast project in the heart of Paris, Station F, is a symbol of France’s ambitions to be the start-up capital of Europe. Under an arc of glass and curved concrete, it aims to amass the largest group of entrepreneurs, venture capital firms, incubators and accelerators anywhere in the world.

The ambitious effort would seem an expensive, even quixotic undertaking for France, a country better known for a 35-hour workweek and rigid labor laws. And plenty of countries are trying to emulate Silicon Valley’s start-up ecosystem, with varying degrees of success.

While France needs to lure more international investors and further ease rules for entrepreneurs, the country, backed by government officials and tech leaders, has started to inject new energy into the start-up scene. France has already become one of Europe’s top destinations for start-up investment; venture capital and funding deals last year surpassed that activity in Germany, making it second only to Britain in Europe.