Villeneuve-d'Ascq

Villeneuve-d'Ascq
Jielbeaumadier ascq eglise.jpg
Saint-Pierre
Villeneuve-d'Ascq is located in France
Villeneuve-d'Ascq
Administration
Country France
Region Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Department Nord
Arrondissement Lille
Canton Villeneuve-d'Ascq-Nord and
Villeneuve-d'Ascq-Sud
Intercommunality Lille Métropole
Mayor Gérard Caudron
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 19–46 m (62–151 ft)
Land area1 22.66 km2 (8.75 sq mi)
Population2 62,400  (2004)
 - Density 2,754 /km2 (7,130 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 59009/ 59491, 59493, 59650
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.
Saint-Sébastien d'Annappes church.

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.

It is located between Lille and Roubaix, at the crossroads of the principal freeways towards Paris, Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. Its name means New city of Ascq in French and is derived from the Dutch word for "ash". It is one of the principal cities of the communauté urbaine Lille Métropole.

Contents

Demography

Villeneuve d'Ascq counts more than 60,000 inhabitants and attracts 50,000 students, thanks to its technopole. The median age of the population is 29 years.

Geography

The city counts approximately 10 km2 (3.9 sq mi) of greenspace, lakes, forests and arable lands.

History

The roots of the city can be traced back to Celtic Gaul, and are anchored in two feudal mounds, a Gallo-Roman site and a Carolingian one.

Its site was selected in the 1960s to accommodate the new town of Lille-Est, which was to channel the development of the agglomeration. The commune of Villeneuve-d'Ascq was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the three communes (Ascq, Annappes and Flers). Its name evokes at the same time the new city and the memory of Ascq, martyr city of 1 April 1944, date on which the Nazis massacred 86 men.

The city's merger with Lille was contentious and failed twice (1972 and 1976).

Chronology

Heraldry

Arms of Villeneuve-d'Ascq

The arms of Villeneuve-d'Ascq are blazoned :
Tierced per fess 'Ascq', 'Flers-lez-Lille' and 'Annappes'

Technopole

Economy

Businesses and public organizations

Different kind of businesses have their head office in Villeneuve d'Ascq, because of the high size of the land area, the implantation of many researchers (in particular in Cité Scientifique and Haute Borne) and the localization near Benelux and Paris. Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts notably head office of the food processing company Bonduelle, financial services providers Cofidis, sporting good chain store Decathlon, chocolate manufacture Bouquet d'Or, disposable dishes Tifany Industrie, information security company Netasq, restaurant chains Flunch, Les 3 Brasseurs, Pizza Paï.

Furthermore Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts Europe - Middle East - Africa head office of information technology consulting company SoftThinks and European head office and R&D center of Canadian frozen foods company McCain Foods. We can also find there central buying service of international retail group Auchan, a R&D center of multinational agri-processor Tate & Lyle, and a numerization and data processing center of American company Xerox.

Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts moreover many administration and public organizations offices. The Northern headquarters of French national meteorological service Météo-France, big barracks of the National Gendarmerie (450 gendarmes and their family), the Northern headquarters of French national information and traffic center (Centre régional d'information et de circulation routière). Since 1998 is located a big office of the mobile network operator and Internet service provider Orange, along with the information computing center of Électricité de France for the Northern and Western France region.

From 1984 to 1994 where located in Villeneuve d'Ascq a Groupe Bull factory that developed, manufactured and marketed desktops personal computers ; at this place is from now on head office of Decathlon Group, called Decathlon campus). There was also a Rhône-Poulenc chemical factory, where is presently offices of mail order company 3 Suisses.

Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts the Northern head office of Textile and Clothing French Institute (IFTH) which assist industry for their technological and economical development. Finally, 2000 businesses are implanted in the city.

Shops and trade

Two huge shopping centers are located in the technopole. Centre commercial V2 founded in 1977 was when created the biggest shopping center located northerly from Paris and is still in 2004 the biggest one of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area. A new one opened in 2009. Heron Parc, 13 000 m² shopping center located besides Centre commercial V2, hosts numerous stores of Groupe Auchan and a 12 auditoriums movie theater.

Economical dynamism

In 1996, Villeneuve d'Ascq was rated 11th French dynamic city by financial newspaper Les Échos. It was the only one city of Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in the top 50.

In a study about employment forecasting in French cities for the next decade, released in 2007 by L'Expansion business magazine, Villeneuve d'Ascq reaches the first place, with an employment forecasting estimate to +23,7% until 2017, notably more than Lille, Marseille, Lyon and Paris. In this study Villeneuve d'Ascq is described as the « most dynamic city of France » about employment.

Academic and scientific facilities

Villeneuve d'Ascq is the first academic pole of the metropolitan area. Numerous academic and scientific facilities are located there (around 42,000 students and 2,500 researchers).

The city hosts two main university campuses. They are science and technology university Université Lille 1, most regional scientific academic center, and most national acandemic place for continuing education, and humanities taught university Charles de Gaulle University – Lille III. Those two campuses count a half of Université Lille Nord de France students.

Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts also an University Institutes for Technology (IUT A), the school in architecture École nationale supérieure d'architecture et de paysage de Lille, along with five graduate schools : École centrale de Lille, École nationale supérieure de chimie de Lille, Polytech'Lille (formerly EUDIL), TELECOM Lille 1 (formerly ENIC), École supérieure des techniques industrielles et des textiles (ESTIT).

200 public and private laboratories whose 31 of them members of French National Centre for Scientific Research are located in the technopole. Some main research institute are situated in Villeneuve d'Ascq, for example IEMN (Institut d'électronique de microélectronique et de nanotechnologie), INRIA Lille (National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control), INRETS Lille (Institut national de recherche sur les transports et leur sécurité), ESTAS (Évaluation des systèmes de transports autorisés et de leur sécurité), LEOST (Laboratoire électronique, ondes et signaux pour les transports), TRACES (Socio-économie des transports et de l'aménagement), INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), the veterinary laboratory of the Nord department, l'IRIS (Institut de recherche de l'industrie sucrière), ITF-Nord (Institut textile de France).

At last but not least, the technopole hosts the European scientific park Haute Borne, 150 hectare next to Université Lille 1.

Administration

Having succeeded Gérard Caudron as mayor from 1977 to 2001, Jean-Michel Stievenard and his team wish to maintain balances the environnement and the economic development, the greenery and technology, the daily wellbeing and the great projects, the social one and quality, opening on the its internal comfort and rest of the world, its finance and high degree of public utility. The mayors of Villeneuve-d'Ascq since 1977 have been members of the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste).In 2008, the local elections brought back to the city council Gerard Caudron as mayor.

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is the seat of two cantons:

Landmarks

The city keeps of its past of many vestiges, sites and equipment. One can visit a museum of modern art there, the forum of sciences François Mitterrand, the rebuildings of a Gaulois village to the park Archéologique ASNAPIO.

The town's stadium Stadium Lille Metropole is the temporary home of Lille's Soccer club the Lille Olympique Sporting Club which is one of the major teams in Ligue 1, having won 8 major national trophies and now regularly appearing in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup.

Transportation

As a part of the Urban Community of Lille Métropole, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is connected to Lille city centre by a VAL, a type of fully-automatic (driverless) light rubber-tired metro. The VAL metro line runs through Villeneuve-d'Ascq from Quatre-Cantons and Cité Scientifique stations and drives up to Lille historical city centre and railways stations in about ten minutes.

In fact, while the acronym VAL now officially stands for Véhicule Automatique Léger (automatic light vehicle), it was originally for Villeneuve-d'Ascq à Lille (meaning Villeneuve-d'Ascq to Lille), the route of the first line to be projected, and inaugurated on 25 April 1983. The Villeneuve d'Ascq metro station is under the Place Salvador Allende (Salvadore Allende Square) and a shopping centre which includes Auchan as one of its main tenants.

Twin towns

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is twinned with:

See also

References

External links