Bougival

Bougival

12th-century Notre-Dame Church

Coat of arms

Location (in red) within Paris inner and outer suburbs
Coordinates: 48°52′00″N 2°08′00″E / 48.8667°N 2.1333°ECoordinates: 48°52′00″N 2°08′00″E / 48.8667°N 2.1333°E
Country France
Region Île-de-France
Department Yvelines
Arrondissement Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Intercommunality Coteaux de Seine
Government
 • Mayor (2008–2014) Aline Pascal
Area1 2.76 km2 (1.07 sq mi)
Population (2006)2 8,532
 • Density 3,100/km2 (8,000/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 78092 / 
Elevation 23–166 m (75–545 ft)

1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Bougival is a commune (or village) in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Bougival is 15.3 km (9.5 mi) from the center of Paris in its western suburbs.

As the site where many of the French Masters (including Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, and Auguste Renoir) painted country scenes along the Seine, the village today hosts a series of six historical placards, known as the "Impressionists Walk," at locations from which the noted painters depicted the scenes of Bougival.[1]

Bougival is also noted as the site of the Machine de Marly, a sprawling, complicated[2] hydraulic pumping device that began supplying the massive quantity of water required by the fountains at Palace of Versailles in the late 1600s. Considered one of the foremost engineering accomplishments of its era, the cacophanous, breakdown-prone[2] apparatus comprised fourteen waterwheels (approximately 38 feet in diameter) driven by the current of the Seine — in turn powering more than 250 pumps, delivering water up a 500 foot vertical rise through a series of pumping stations, holding tanks, reservoirs, pipes and mechanical linkages. In use until 1817, the machine was subsequently updated, replaced with another pumping building in 1858 and finally replaced by an electrical generator in 1963. The building itself remained until 1968. Remnants are visible today at the riverbank.[2]

In Bougival, Georges Bizet composed the opera Carmen at his home at Rue Ivan Tourguenievf on the Seine[1] and noted Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev built a datcha. A local monument commemorates the Montgolfier brothers, pioneers of flight.[1] and the commune hosts the annual Festival of Bougival et des Coteaux de Seine.

History

In the 19th century, Bougival emerged as a fashionable suburb of Paris. Pauline Viardot had a villa there, as did her paramour Ivan Turgenev, who died in the town in 1883. Bougival was also known as the "Cradle of Impressionism" during the Belle Époque. Painters Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Sisley among others painted the light, sky, and water of this area. Alexandre Dumas, fils set parts of his novel The Lady of the Camellias in Bougival.

The Junior division of the British School of Paris (formerly the English School of Paris) was located in Bougival up until 2008. Prior to the English School, it was a Catholic all-girls school called Marymount in the 1960s. It was reported that the Germans occupied the estate during World War II, along with the nuns that lived there, due to the estate's vantage point of the Seine River. Rennequin Sualem

Transport

Bougival is served by Bougival station on the Transilien Paris – Saint-Lazare suburban rail line. This station is located at the border between the commune of Bougival and the commune of La Celle-Saint-Cloud, on the La Celle-Saint-Cloud side of the border.

Two multiple locks on the River Seine are located in Bougival.

Notable residents

Rennequin Sualem, inventor of the Marly Machine, died in Bougival in 1708. Ivan Turgenev died in Bougival in 1883, as well as Georges Bizet in 1875. Pauline Viardot made Bougival her home.Gabrielle d'Estrées had a chateau there (destroyed in the 19th century).

The town has since been home to noted residents including Darco, Frank Alamo, Guillaume Depardieu, Jean-Louis Aubert, Michel Rocard, Flavie Flament, Laurent Garnier, Jean-Marie Hullot, Jean Michel Jarre, Benjamin Castaldi and Gilbert Montagné have been residents of Bougival. Noted advertising pioneer Charles-Louis Havas lived in Bougival. Centennial Yvonne van Quickenborn, entrepreneur (STOP) and musician, spent the last 70 years of her life in Bougival.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Plan Bougival Version Anglais". Office du Tourisme, Bougival.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "La Machine de Marly". machinedemarly.org.

External links

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