Boulogne-Billancourt

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For other places known as Boulogne, see Boulogne.

Commune of Boulogne-Billancourt Typical street in Boulogne.
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	Jean-Pierre Fourcade
Statistics
Altitude	28 m–40 m
Land area¹	6.17 km²
Population² (Jan. 1, 2005 estimate) (March 8, 1999 census)	109,400 106,367
- Density (2005)	17,731/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	92012/ 92100
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Boulogne-Billancourt (often colloquially called simply Boulogne) 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 a populous commune in the suburbs of Paris and one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. Formerly an important industrial pole, it has successfully recovered into business activities and is now hosting major communication companies headquarters in the business district of the Val de Seine.

Contents 1 Name 2 History 3 Demographics 3.1 Immigration 4 Administration 5 Transport 6 Miscellaneous 6.1 Births 6.2 Twin towns 7 In popular culture 8 External links

[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 neighborhood of Billancourt annexed in 1860 (read 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".

As well as Neuilly-sur-Seine and Levallois-Perret, Boulogne-Billancourt is one of the richest suburbs of Paris.

[edit] History

On January 1, 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighboring 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 Boulogne-Billancourt's residents in 1999 Born in Metropolitan France Born outside of 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 in large part of pieds-noirs from Northwest Africa, then also of former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for native elites in the French colonies), and in a smaller measure of 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, at which time Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country by French statistics. ² An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country and who did not have French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant by French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with a foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants.

[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.

[edit] Births

Boulogne-Billancourt was the birthplace of:

• Pierre Bellemare, actor, writer
• Bertrand Blier (born March 14, 1939), screenwriter and film director; son of Bernard Blier.
• Daniel Buren (born 1938), conceptual artist
• Guillaume Canet (born April 10, 1973), actor
• Leslie Caron (born 1931), film actress and dancer
• Édith Cresson (born 1934), politician, former Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand's presidency.
• Alain Feydeau (born July 21, 1934), actor
• Hippolyte Girardot (born October 10, 1955), actor
• Anna Gavalda (born 1970), novelist
• André Glucksmann (born 1937), political philosopher, writer
• Gérard Lanvin (born June 21, 1950), actor
• David Hallyday, (born David Smet on August 14, 1962), composer, pop rock singer; son of singers Jean-Philippe Smet aka Johnny Halliday and Sylvie Vartan, cousin of actress Laura Smet and actor Michael Vartan.
• Louise L. Lambrichs (born 1952), novelist and screenwriter
• Claude Pinoteau, actor, director, writer, producer
• Marc Levy (born October 16, 1961), international best-seller writer
• Alain Sarde (born March 28]], 1952), once an actor, now writer and producer.
• Mathieu Chedid (born December 21, 1971), composer, singer, guitarist; son of fellow singer and composer Louis Chedid and grandson of writer and poetess Andrée Chedid.
• Benjamin Castaldi (born March 28, 1970), tv presenter and producer; son of actor Jean-Pierre Castaldi, husband of fellow tv presenter Flavie Flament.
• Jérôme Pradon (born June 3, 1964), stage actor
• Xavier de Roux (born 1940), politician
• Thierry Lhermitte (born November 24, 1952), actor, co-writer (usually with the band of the Splendid), director, producer.
• Nelson Monfort (born March 12, 1954), tv presenter, traductor, sports commentator for French public television.
• Roger Monteaux (born July 18, 1879), actor
• Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934), philanthropist and activist for Jewish affairs
• Véronique Sanson, singer
• Thierry Roland (born August 4, 1934), football specialist, sports journalist, tv commentator and presenter.
• Catherine Spaak (born April 3, 1945), actress
• Agnès Spaak (born April 29, 1944), actress
• Anne Goscinny (born May 19, 1968), daughter of comics-maker René Goscinny (Astérix), and writer Gilberte Goscinny.
• Marie Trintignant (1962-2003), actress
• Gaspard Ulliel, (born 1984), actor
• Isabelle de Truchis de Varennes (Zazie), (born 1964), singer-songwriter
• Michael Vartan (born 1968), French-American actor
• Booba, MC
• Sandrine Kiberlain (born February 25, 1968), actress; wife of fellow French actor Vincent Lindon.
• Bulle Ogier (born Marie-France Thielland on August 9, 1939), actress
• Corinne Lepage (born May 11, 1951), actress
• Georgette Tissier (June 26, 1910–March 30, 1957 in Paris), actress

[edit] Twin towns

Boulogne-Billancourt is twinned with:

• Since 1955:
  • Anderlecht, Belgium
  • Neukölln, a borough of Berlin, Germany
  • Hammersmith and Fulham, London, United Kingdom
  • Zaanstad, Netherlands
• Since 1968:
  • Marino, Italy
  • Pančevo, Serbia
  • Ra'anana, Israel
• Since 1993:
  • Irving, Texas, United States
  • Sousse, Tunisia

[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

• Boulogne-Billancourt city council website (in French)
• History of Billancourt (in French)