Boulogne-Billancourt

French commune
nomcommune=Boulogne-Billancourt
A typical street in Boulogne-Billancourt

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.

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".

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

Demographics

Immigration

France immigration
collectivity_name=Boulogne-Billancourt
census_year=1999
metropolitan_France=79.8
outside_metropolitan_France=20.2
overseas_France=0.8
foreign_French=4.5
EU-15=4.1
non-EU-15=10.8

Demographic Evolution

Administration

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

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.

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.

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
* Booba, MC
* Daniel Buren (born 1938), conceptual artist
* Guillaume Canet (born April 10, 1973), actor, screenwriter and director
* Leslie Caron (born 1931), film actress and dancer
* Benjamin Castaldi (born March 28, 1970), TV presenter and producer; son of actor Jean-Pierre Castaldi, former husband of fellow TV presenter Flavie Flament
* 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.
* Édith Cresson (born 1934), politician, former Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand's presidency
* Xavier de Roux (born 1940), politician
* Michel Deville (born April 13, 1931), screenwriter and film director
* Alain Feydeau (born July 21, 1934), actor
* Anna Gavalda (born 1970), best-selling novelist
* Hippolyte Girardot (born October 10, 1955), actor
* André Glucksmann (born 1937), political philosopher, writer
* Anne Goscinny (born May 19, 1968), daughter of comics-maker René Goscinny (Astérix), and writer Gilberte Goscinny
* David Hallyday, (born David Smet on August 14, 1962), composer, pop rock singer; son of singers Johnny Halliday (born Jean-Philippe Smet) and Sylvie Vartan, cousin of actress Laura Smet and actor Michael Vartan
* Henri Kagan (born 1930), chemist
* Sandrine Kiberlain (born February 25, 1968), actress; wife of fellow French actor Vincent Lindon
* Louise L. Lambrichs (born 1952), novelist and screenwriter
* Gérard Lanvin (born June 21, 1950), actor
* Corinne Lepage (born May 11, 1951), actress
* Marc Levy (born October 16, 1961), international best-sellers writer
* 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, translator, sports commentator for French public television.
* Roger Monteaux (born July 18, 1879), actor
* Bulle Ogier (born Marie-France Thielland on August 9, 1939), actress
* Claude Pinoteau, actor, director, writer, producer
* Jérôme Pradon (born June 3, 1964), stage actor
* Thierry Roland (born August 4, 1934), football specialist, sports journalist, TV commentator and presenter.
* Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934), philanthropist and activist for Jewish affairs
* Véronique Sanson, singer
* Alain Sarde (born March 28, 1952), former actor, now writer and producer.
* Catherine Spaak (born April 3, 1945), actress
* Agnès Spaak (born April 29, 1944), actress
* Georgette Tissier (June 26, 1910–March 30, 1957 in Paris), actress
* Marie Trintignant (1962–2003), actress
* Gaspard Ulliel, (born November 25, 1984), actor, model
* Michael Vartan (born 1968), French-American actor
* Zazie (Isabelle de Truchis de Varennes, born 1964), singer-songwriter
* Adrien W. Jenot (born November 1,1980), France-Canada Graphic designer/Typographer

Twin towns

Boulogne-Billancourt is twinned with:
* Since 1955:
** flagicon|Belgium Anderlecht, Belgium
** flagicon|Germany Neukölln, a borough of Berlin, Germany
** flagicon|UK Hammersmith and Fulham, London, United Kingdom
** flagicon|Netherlands Zaanstad, Netherlands
* Since 1968:
** flagicon|Italy Marino, Italy
** flagicon|Serbia Pančevo, Serbia
** flagicon|Israel Ra'anana, Israel
* Since 1993:
** flagicon|USA Irving, Texas, United States
** flagicon|Tunisia Sousse, Tunisia

In popular culture

* The animated TV show "Code Lyoko" is reportedly set in Boulogne-Billancourt, according to comparison maps on [http://www.codelyoko.net/ENG/Pictures_factory.htm Codelyoko.net] .

* The music video for the Kylie Minogue's 2002 song "Come into My World" was filmed there.

External links

* [http://www.boulognebillancourt.com Boulogne-Billancourt official website] fr icon
* [http://mapage.noos.fr/hubert.demory/billancourt.htm History of Billancourt] fr icon