Boulogne-Billancourt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 48°50′10″N, 2°14′32″E

Commune of Boulogne-Billancourt

A typical street in Boulogne-Billancourt

Location
Paris and inner ring départements
Coordinates 48°50′10″N, 2°14′32″E
Administration
Country France
Region Île-de-France
Department Hauts-de-Seine
(sous-préfecture)
Arrondissement Boulogne-Billancourt
Canton Chief town of 3 cantons
Intercommunality Communauté
d'agglomération
Val de Seine
Mayor Pierre-Christophe Baguet
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 28 m–40 m
Land area¹ 6.17 km²
Population²
(July 1, 2005 estimate)
(March 8, 1999 census)

110,300
106,367
 - Density 17,877/km² (2005)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 92012/ 92100
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.
France

Boulogne-Billancourt (often colloquially called simply Boulogne or Boulbi) is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 8.2 km. (5.1 miles) from the centre of Paris. Boulogne-Billancourt is a sous-préfecture of the Hauts-de-Seine département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Boulogne-Billancourt.

Boulogne-Billancourt is the most populous suburb of Paris and one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. Formerly an important industrial site, it has successfully recovered into business activities and is now home to major communication companies headquarters in the business district of the Val de Seine.

Contents

[edit] Name

The original name of the commune was Boulogne-sur-Seine (meaning "Boulogne upon Seine").

In 1924, Boulogne-sur-Seine was officially renamed Boulogne-Billancourt, to reflect the development of the industrial neighbourhood of Billancourt annexed in 1860 (see history section below).

Before the 14th century, Boulogne was a small village called Menuls-lès-Saint-Cloud (meaning "Menuls near Saint-Cloud"). In the beginning of the 14th century, King Philip IV of France ordered the building in Menuls-lès-Saint-Cloud of a church dedicated to the virgin of the sanctuary of Boulogne-sur-Mer (northern France), then a famous pilgrimage center. The church, meant to become a pilgrimage centre closer to Paris than the distant city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, was named Notre-Dame de Boulogne la Petite ("Our Lady of Boulogne the Minor"). Gradually, the village of Menuls-lès-Saint-Cloud became known as Boulogne-la-Petite, and later as Boulogne-sur-Seine.

As for the name Billancourt, it was recorded for the first time in 1150 as Bullencort, sometimes also spelled Bollencort. It comes from Medieval Latin cortem, accusative of cors, meaning "enclosure", "estate", suffixed to the Germanic patronym Buolo (meaning "friend, brother, kinsman"), thus having the meaning of "estate of Buolo".

[edit] History

On January 1, 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighbouring communes. On that occasion, the communes of Auteuil and Passy were disbanded and divided between Boulogne-Billancourt (then called Boulogne-sur-Seine) and the city of Paris. Boulogne-sur-Seine received a small part of the territory of Passy, and about half of the territory of Auteuil (including the area of Billancourt, which belonged to the disbanded commune of Auteuil).

In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne, which was hitherto divided between the communes of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris. On that occasion, Boulogne-Billancourt, to which most of the Bois de Boulogne belonged, lost about half of its territory

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Immigration

Place of birth of residents of Boulogne-Billancourt in 1999
Born in Metropolitan France Born outside Metropolitan France
79.8% 20.2%
Born in
Overseas France
Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth¹ EU-15 immigrants² Non-EU-15 immigrants
0.8% 4.5% 4.1% 10.8%
¹This group is made up largely of pieds-noirs from Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), and to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. Note that a foreign country is understood as a country not part of France as of 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics.
² An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants.

[edit] Demographic Evolution

Demographic evolution
1936 1954 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2005
97 379 93 998 109 008 103 578 102 582 101 743 106 367 110 300

[edit] Administration

With the city of Sèvres, Boulogne-Billancourt is part of the communauté d'agglomération Val de Seine.

[edit] Transport

Boulogne-Billancourt is served by two stations on Paris Métro Line 10: Boulogne - Jean Jaurès and Boulogne - Pont de Saint-Cloud

It is also served by three stations on Paris Métro Line 9: Marcel Sembat, Billancourt, and Pont de Sèvres.

[edit] Miscellaneous

  • The headquarters of Renault lies in Boulogne-Billancourt.
  • The gardens Albert Kahn at 14, rue du Port, Boulogne-Billancourt are a national museum and include four hectares of gardens, joining together landscape scenes of various national traditions. The museum also includes historic photographs and film.
  • The Musée des Années Trente is a museum of artistic and industrial objects from the 1930s.

[edit] Births

Boulogne-Billancourt was the birthplace of:

[edit] Twin towns

Boulogne-Billancourt is twinned with:

[edit] In popular culture

The animated TV show Code Lyoko is reportedly set in Boulogne-Billancourt, according to comparison maps on Codelyoko.net.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: