112-521: Les Ulis ( French pronunciation: [le.z‿ylis] ) is a commune in the Essonne department located in the southwestern suburbs ( banlieue ) of Paris , France . It is 23 km (14 mi) from the centre of Paris . Les Ulis is a new town located in the Île-de-France , in the south-west of the Parisian agglomeration and in the north-west of the Essonne department. It sits on
224-697: A hybrid library and a cultural centre, named after the writer Boris Vian . In 1982, the population of Les Ulis was 28,223. In 1985, it became a canton . Inhabitants of Les Ulis are known as Ulissiens . The biggest industrial area ( tertiary ) in Europe is concentrated in Parc d'Activité de Courtabœuf (area: 378 ha) with more than 1,000 companies employing 24,500 people. This area is spread over three communes: Les Ulis (mainly), Villebon-sur-Yvette and Villejust . Many companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Apple have their French head offices in this area. Les Ulis
336-421: A "realm of 100,000 steeples". Parishes lacked the municipal structures of post-Revolution communes. Usually, one contained only a building committee ( conseil de fabrique ), made up of villagers, which managed the buildings of the parish church, the churchyard, and the other numerous church estates and properties, and sometimes also provided help for the poor, or even administered parish hospitals or schools. Since
448-644: A branch towards Longjumeau. This first proposal was not pursued, but the current route, with a branch at Bourg-la-Reine, was seriously studied. However, the financial crisis of 1847 further weakened the company, so that it was placed in receivership in 1849–1850. During the Revolution of 1848 , earthworks were built from Sceaux to Orsay, financed by the State within the framework of the National Workshops . They reached Palaiseau in 1849. The State, wary of
560-445: A category currently being phased out), made up of 33,327 communes (91.1 percent of all the communes of metropolitan France), and 52.86 million inhabitants, i.e., 86.7 percent of the population of metropolitan France. These impressive results however may hide a murkier reality. In rural areas, many communes have entered a community of communes only to benefit from government funds. Often the local syndicate has been turned officially into
672-400: A commune comprising the three towns. Both municipal councils voted in favour of the creation of a new commune for Les Ulis. The Prefect of Essonne , Paul Cousserand, created Les Ulis as the 196th commune of the department on 17 February 1977. In March 1977, Paul Lorident was elected mayor of Les Ulis, whilst the town remained in construction. He oversaw the building of a town hall, a market,
784-537: A commune for their administration. This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: In metropolitan France , the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres (5.75 sq mi). The median area of metropolitan France's communes at
896-537: A community of communes, the new community of communes in fact managing only the services previously managed by the syndicate, contrary to the spirit of the law which has established the new intercommunal structures to carry out a much broader range of activities than that undertaken by the old syndicates. Some say that, should government money transfers be stopped, many of these communities of communes would revert to their former status of syndicate, or simply completely disappear in places where there were no syndicates prior to
1008-864: A decree of 1889 permitted the Arnoux system to be abandoned and 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) standard gauge adopted. In order not to interrupt the traffic, the conversion of gauge and change of rolling stock was carried out on the night of 21/22 May 1891. The original route from Bourg-la-Reine to Sceaux was abandoned and replaced by the current route, which also comprises three stations and ends in Robinson, passing through Fontenay-aux-Roses . Work began in June 1891 and ended in May 1893. The extension in Paris between Denfert station and Luxembourg
1120-589: A density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last 10 years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: First, of the original 15 member states of the European Union there are approximately 75,000 communes; France alone, which comprises 16 percent of the population of the EU-15, had nearly half of its communes. Second,
1232-586: A difficult crossing under the Seine and it was initially envisaged that Luxembourg station would be closed to allow an earlier descent to pass under the river and it would be replaced by the construction of a new station called Quartier Latin , which would have been built further north towards the Carrefour de l'Odéon to allow a connection with lines 4 and 10 of the Métro. A protest campaign by residents led to
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#17327801516471344-603: A law on 5 August 1844 that granted him a concession to build and operate the Sceaux line for a period of fifty years. On 21 February 1845, he founded the Compagnie du Chemin de fer de Paris à Sceaux (Paris–Sceaux Railway Company). The first section connected the embarcadère (pier) of Enfer (renamed Denfert-Rochereau in 1895 ), located at the Barrière d'Enfer in Paris, to Sceaux. It was inaugurated on 7 June 1846 and opened to
1456-769: A massive merger of communes, including by such distinguished voices as the president of the Cour des Comptes (the central auditing administrative body in France). In 1971 the Marcellin law offered support and money from the government to entice the communes to merge freely with each other, but the law had only a limited effect (only about 1,300 communes agreed to merge with others). Many rural communes with few residents struggle to maintain and manage basic services such as running water, garbage collection, or properly paved communal roads. Mergers, however, are not easy to achieve. One problem
1568-592: A much larger territory covering 449,964 km (173,732 sq mi) and yet is divided into only 290 municipalities ( kommuner ). Alsace has more than double the total number of municipalities of the Netherlands which, in spite of having a population nine times larger and a land area four times larger than Alsace, is divided into just 390 municipalities ( gemeenten ). Most of the communes in Alsace, along with those in other regions of France, have rejected
1680-494: A single red light, the forward indication of an occupied section was indicated by two red lights. A warning was given by two yellow lights and an early warning by three yellow lights. A clear section was indicated by a green light. This signalling was replaced by the standard SNCF signalling when the line was extended to Châtelet–Les Halles to connect with RER A . The tracks of the Saint-Rémy–Limours section were torn up by
1792-782: Is twinned with: Communes of France The commune ( French pronunciation: [kɔmyn] ) is a level of administrative division in the French Republic . French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes . Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage
1904-609: Is 35 km (14 sq mi); and in Germany , the majority of Länder have communes ( Gemeinden ) with a median area above 15 km (5.8 sq mi). Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They usually group into
2016-421: Is either rural or comprises communal green space. The French Institut Géographique National gives the co-ordinates of the town as 48°40'56" N and 02°10'03" E at the central point. The source of the minor river Rouillon (river) is in the neighbouring town of Villejust , close to the communal border. The lowest point of the town, at the point where it meets Bures-sur-Yvette , is at an altitude of 87 m . Most of
2128-402: Is that mergers reduce the number of available elected positions, and thus are not popular with local politicians. Moreover, citizens from one village may be unwilling to have their local services run by an executive located in another village, whom they may consider unaware of or inattentive to their local needs. In December 2010 the law n° 2010-1563 regarding reform of territorial collectivities
2240-516: Is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic but exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements : French communes are considered legal entities , whereas municipal arrondissements, by contrast, have no official capacity and no budget of their own. The rights and obligations of communes are governed by
2352-722: Is the smallest and oldest administrative division in France . " Commune " in English has a historical association with socialist and collectivist political movements and philosophies. This association arises in part from the rising of the Paris Commune (1871) which could have more felicitously been called, in English, "the rising of the City of Paris". There is nothing intrinsically different between "town" in English and commune in French. The French word commune appeared in
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#17327801516472464-552: The Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations. From 1794 to 1977 — except for a few months in 1848 and 1870-1871 — Paris had no mayor and was thus directly controlled by the departmental prefect. This meant that Paris had less autonomy than certain towns or villages. Even after Paris regained
2576-406: The Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Lyon was nationalised in 1848. In 1895, it was extended north into Paris to Luxembourg station . In 1937, it was transferred by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans to the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP) after thorough modernisation. The commissioning of electric railcars suitable for the line, the Z railcars , and
2688-565: The National Assembly ( Assemblée Nationale ) passed a law creating the commune, designed to be the lowest level of administrative division in France, thus endorsing these independently created communes, but also creating communes of its own. In this area as in many others, the work of the National Assembly was, properly speaking, revolutionary: not content with transforming all the chartered cities and towns into communes,
2800-482: The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 by Francis I , the priest in charge of the parish was also required to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. Except for these tasks, villages were left to handle other issues as they pleased. Typically, villagers would gather to decide over a special issue regarding the community, such as agricultural land usage, but there existed no permanent municipal body. In many places,
2912-573: The Place d'Enfer , in Paris, to the town of Sceaux . The line originally opened in 1846 as a broad gauge line to demonstrate the Arnoux system and was extended to the south to Sceaux. A branch, now the main line, was built to Orsay and extended to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse and then to Limours . In the latter configuration, it is also called the Paris-Luxembourg–Limours line (line 552000 of
3024-631: The United States , with a territory fourteen times larger than that of the French Republic, and nearly five times its population, had 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships at the 2002 Census of Governments, fewer than that of the French Republic. The number of barangays in the Philippines, villages of Indonesia, and muban in Thailand also have a higher number than the French communes. There have long been calls in France for
3136-444: The mairies . These abrupt changes profoundly alienated devout Catholics, and France soon was plunged into the throes of civil war , with the fervently religious regions of western France at its center. It would take Napoleon I to re-establish peace in France, stabilize the new administrative system, and make it generally accepted by the population. Napoleon also abolished the election of the municipal councils, which now were chosen by
3248-716: The prefect , the local representative of the central government. Today, French communes are still very much the same in their general principles as those that were established at the beginning of the Revolution. The biggest changes occurred in 1831, when the French Parliament re-established the principle of the election of municipal councils, and in 1837 when French communes were given legal "personality", being now considered legal entities with legal capacity. The Jacobin revolutionaries were afraid of independent local powers, which they saw as conservative and opposed to
3360-551: The 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia , for a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis , 'things held in common'. As of January 2021, there were 35,083 communes in France , of which 34,836 were in metropolitan France , 129 in the overseas departments , and 83 in the overseas collectivities and New Caledonia . This is a considerably higher total than that of any other European country , because French communes still largely reflect
3472-512: The 1999 census was even smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres (4.14 sq mi). The median area gives a better sense of the size of a typical mainland France commune than the average area since the average includes some very large communes. In Italy , the median area of communes ( comuni ) is 22 km (8.5 sq mi); in Belgium it is 40 km (15 sq mi); in Spain it
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3584-401: The 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants and, with 4,638,000 inhabitants, these smaller communes constitute just 7.7 percent of the total population. In other words, just 8 percent of the French population live in 57 percent of its communes, whilst 92 percent are concentrated in the remaining 43 percent. Alsace , with an area of 8,280 km (3,200 sq mi), and now part of
3696-465: The Arnoux company in 1857 to thwart the plans of a competing company that wanted to gain rail access to Paris. In the project presented, the Sceaux line was to be integrated into a route from Paris to Tours through Châteaudun and Vendôme. However, once this competitor had been eliminated and in-depth studies carried out, the Paris-Orléans determined that the beginning of the line to Tours via Orsay
3808-527: The Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans bought the line from Paris to Orsay under an agreement signed between the two companies on 18 June 1855. This treaty was approved by decree on 19 June 1857. As compensation for a population that was to be deprived of a railway, it was proposed to build a section from Orsay to Limours as an extension of the Sceaux line. A decree of August 28, 1862 ratified this extension to Limours, via Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse and
3920-571: The Courtabœuf plateau which dominates the Yvette valley, also known as the Chevreuse valley. It is 23 km to the south-west of central Paris, 20 km north-west of Évry and 14 km to the south-east of Versailles . The town is laid out in the form of a U, approximately three kilometres by two kilometres, and covers 680 hectares . Over 65% of the area is built-up, 17% is semi-rural and 16%
4032-537: The German occupiers in 1941; the ballast was used for the construction of the runways at Villacoublay airfield by allied forces in 1944. This was the end of use of the section, although it was not officially closed until 1967. The rest of the line was spared by the war until 1944. However, Massy-Palaiseau railway junction, located on the Grande Ceinture (Great Belt), which was used by the occupying forces,
4144-565: The National Assembly also decided to turn all the village parishes into full-status communes. The Revolutionaries were inspired by Cartesian ideas as well as by the philosophy of the Enlightenment . They wanted to do away with all the peculiarities of the past and establish a perfect society, in which all and everything should be equal and set up according to reason, rather than by tradition or conservatism. Thus, they set out to establish administrative divisions that would be uniform across
4256-502: The Région Grand Est, used to be the smallest of the regions of metropolitan France , and still has no fewer than 904 communes. This high number is typical of metropolitan France but is atypical when compared with other European countries. It shows the distinctive nature of the French commune as a geo-political or administrative entity. With its 904 communes, Alsace has three times as many municipalities as Sweden , which has
4368-612: The Sceaux line from Limours to Dourdan under an agreement signed by the Minister of Public Works and the company on 20 February 1913. This convention was approved by law on 7 July 1913, which also declared that the line had public utility. This line was never built. As early as 1929, the Langevin plan (named after the then Minister of Public Works) included link lines in the Paris region so as to create an urban transport infrastructure on
4480-483: The Yvette valley and fresh vegetables. The line was single track, broad gauge, although the concession provides for its conversion to standard gauge in the long term. The line comprised 17 structures, including a 205-metre (673 ft)-long tunnel. Between Palaiseau and Orsay, the line was also sinuous, unlike the section built by the state: the radii of curvature were as little as 125 m (410 ft). The section
4592-516: The area that is today Les Ulis. During the Roman era , villas rustica occupied the Courtabœuf plateau. One, the "Villa Bona" gives its name to nearby Villebon-sur-Yvette . A number were constructed by a property owner named Uslo , whose name might conceivably be connected to that of Les Ulis. It is also possible that the name is related to the Old French usler , meaning to raze by fire. The area
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4704-452: The benefit of poorer suburbs. Moreover, intercommunal structures in many urban areas are still new, and fragile: Tensions exist between communes; the city at the center of the urban area often is suspected of wishing to dominate the suburban communes; communes from opposing political sides also may be suspicious of each other. Two famous examples of this are Toulouse and Paris. In Toulouse, on top of there being six intercommunal structures,
4816-532: The central government's calls for mergers and rationalization. By way of contrast, in the German states bordering Alsace, the geo-political and administrative areas have been subject to various re-organizations from the 1960s onward. In the state of Baden-Württemberg , the number of Gemeinden or communities was reduced from 3,378 in 1968 to 1,108 in September 2007. In comparison, the number of communes in Alsace
4928-410: The chartered cities) suddenly became legal entities for the first time in their history. This is still the case today. During the revolution, approximately 41,000 communes were created, on territory corresponding to the limits of modern-day France (the 41,000 figure includes the communes of the departments of Savoie , Haute-Savoie and Alpes-Maritimes which were annexed in 1795, but does not include
5040-535: The city of Toulouse chartered by the counts of Toulouse). These cities were made up of several parishes (up to c. 50 parishes in the case of Paris), and they were usually enclosed by a defensive wall . They had been emancipated from the power of feudal lords in the 12th and 13th centuries, had municipal bodies which administered the city, and bore some resemblance with the communes that the French Revolution would establish except for two key points: In
5152-421: The communes of Bures-sur-Yvette and Orsay , were set aside for this housing project. On 13 March 1964, an urban district of Bures-Orsay was established to oversee the development of the area. Road and utilities for the industrial zone were completed by July 1966, with the first business, AtoChem (part of what is now Total S.A. ), moving in the following year. Hewlett-Packard created its French headquarters in
5264-423: The company's future, built the platforms to conventional railway standards, that is to say with radii of curvature grrater than the sharp curves accepted by the Arnoux system. The company, partially refloated, obtains a concession to build a line from Bourg-la-Reine to Orsay by a law of 10 June 1853. In addition to passenger traffic, significant freight traffic was forecast, notably the transport of sandstone from
5376-544: The country: the whole of France would be divided into départements , themselves divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons, themselves divided into communes, no exceptions. All of these communes would have equal status, they would all have a mayor at their head and a municipal council elected by the inhabitants of the commune. This was a real revolution for the thousands of villages that never had experienced organized municipal life before. A communal house had to be built in each of these villages, which would house
5488-464: The departments of modern-day Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine , which were part of France between 1795 and 1815). This was fewer than the 60,000 parishes that existed before the revolution (in cities and towns, parishes were merged into one single commune; in the countryside, some very small parishes were merged with bigger ones), but 41,000 was still a considerable number, without any comparison in
5600-412: The difference residing in the lack of administrative powers. Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials including a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ). They have extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune
5712-599: The division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution . (1) Within the current limits of metropolitan France, which existed between 1860 and 1871 and from 1919 to today. (2) Within the current extent of overseas France, which has remained unchanged since the independence of the New Hebrides in 1980. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes; even uninhabited mountains or rain forests are dependent on
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#17327801516475824-528: The east exit of RER C from the station in the form of a second double-track running tunnel parallel to the one heading towards the Gare d'Austerlitz . This is now used for train storage. A line from Limours to Dourdan was granted as a possible concession to the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans by an agreement signed between the Minister of Public Works and the Company on 17 June 1892. This agreement
5936-543: The end of the afternoon, following the storming of the Bastille , the provost of the merchants of Paris, Jacques de Flesselles was shot by the crowd on the steps of Paris City Hall. Although in the Middle Ages the provosts of the merchants symbolized the independence of Paris and even had openly rebelled against King Charles V , their office had been suppressed by the king, then reinstated but with strict control from
6048-480: The fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants, but there are also a small number of communes with much higher populations. In metropolitan France 57 percent of
6160-458: The first letter indicates the terminus station for the service and the following letters indicate the details of the route (for instance: AILO, KNUT, POLY, LYRE, etc.) Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame station , built to allow connection with line C of the RER and line 10 of the métro , was opened on 17 February 1988. This involved fitting out spaces reserved for it during the construction of the tunnel and
6272-558: The form of a law on 22 March 1890, which provided for the establishment of single-purpose intercommunal associations. French lawmakers having long been aware of the inadequacy of the communal structure inherited from the French Revolution for dealing with a number of practical matters, the so-called Chevènement law of 12 July 1999 is the most recent and most thoroughgoing measure aimed at strengthening and simplifying this principle. In recent years it has become increasingly common for communes to band together in intercommunal consortia for
6384-455: The industrial zone in 1968. In the same year, the first residents moved into Les Ulis, although running water was not yet available in all homes. The first municipal council for Les Ulis was elected in 1971. In 1973, a shopping centre, Ulis 2 , was opened under the auspices of Carrefour . A census of 1975 records 20,283 people living in Les Ulis. Because this was significantly greater than
6496-548: The king, and so they had ended up being viewed by the people as yet another representative of the king, no longer the embodiment of a free municipality. Following that event, a "commune" of Paris was immediately set up to replace the old medieval chartered city of Paris, and a municipal guard was established to protect Paris against any attempt made by King Louis XVI to quell the ongoing revolution. Several other cities of France quickly followed suit, and communes arose everywhere, each with their municipal guard. On 14 December 1789,
6608-437: The kingdom. A parish was essentially a church, the houses around it (known as the village), and the cultivated land around the village. France was the most populous country in Europe at this time, with a population of approximately 25 million inhabitants in the late 18th century ( England in contrast had only 6 million inhabitants), which accounts for the large number of parishes. French kings often prided themselves on ruling over
6720-503: The land. It raised cattle and sheep and cultivated wheat, potato, strawberry and beet. There was also a distillery on the land. The Ligne de Sceaux railway opened in 1867, passing just to the west of the present-day town. The development of the Courtabœuf industrial park was decided on in 1960, accompanied on 30 November that year by a decision to create a priority development zone for ten thousand homes to sit alongside it. 265 hectares of land comprising four farms, previously belonging to
6832-653: The law. In urban areas, the new intercommunal structures are much more a reality, being created by local decision-makers out of genuine belief in the worth of working together. However, in many places, local feuds have arisen, and it was not possible to set up an intercommunal structure for the whole of the urban area: some communes refusing to take part in it, or even creating their own structure. In some urban areas like Marseille there exist four distinct intercommunal structures! In many areas, rich communes have joined with other rich communes and have refused to let in poorer communes, for fear that their citizens would be overtaxed to
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#17327801516476944-552: The least money per inhabitant, whereas urban communities are given the most money per inhabitant, thus pushing communes to form more integrated communities where they have fewer powers, which they might otherwise have been loath to do if it were not for government money. The Chevènement law has been extremely successful in the sense that a majority of French communes now have joined the new intercommunal structures. On 1 January 2007, there were 2,573 such communities in metropolitan France (including five syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle ,
7056-764: The line to the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP). This company became part of the future Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP) as a result of a merger after the Second World War with the Société des transports en commun de la région parisienne (STCRP), which managed the bus network and was entrusted with the operation of this section of the line. The line was electrified between 1935 and 1937 and two substations were built at Paris-Montsouris and Massy-Villaine (between Massy-Verrières and Massy-Palaiseau). The first electric train carrying passengers ran on 16 November 1937. The electrification
7168-414: The local feudal lord ( seigneur ) still had a major influence in the village's affairs, collecting taxes from tenant-villagers and ordering them to work the corvée , controlling which fields were to be used and when, and how much of the harvest should be given to him. Additionally, some cities had obtained charters during the Middle Ages, either from the king himself or from local counts or dukes (such as
7280-575: The lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may cover a smaller area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium (11,265 inhabitants), or even Spain (564 inhabitants). The median population given here should not hide
7392-480: The main community of Toulouse and its suburbs is only a community of agglomeration, although Toulouse is large enough to create an Urban Community according to the law. This is because the suburban communes refused an urban community for fear of losing too much power, and opted for a community of agglomeration, despite the fact that a community of agglomeration receives less government funds than an urban community. As for Paris, no intercommunal structure has emerged there,
7504-466: The maximum allowable pay of the mayor and deputy mayors, and municipal campaign finance limits (among other features) all depend on the population echelon into which a particular commune falls. Since the PLM Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements : these are Paris, Marseille , and Lyon . The municipal arrondissement
7616-486: The mayors. Civil marriages were established and started to be performed in the mairie with a ceremony not unlike the traditional one, with the mayor replacing the priest, and the name of the law replacing the name of God (" Au nom de la loi, je vous déclare unis par les liens du mariage. " – "In the name of the law, I declare you united by the bonds of marriage."). Priests were forced to surrender their centuries-old baptism, marriage, and burial books, which were deposited in
7728-425: The meetings of the municipal council as well as the administration of the commune. Some in the National Assembly were opposed to such a fragmentation of France into thousands of communes, but eventually Mirabeau and his ideas of one commune for each parish prevailed. On 20 September 1792, the recording of births, marriages, and deaths also was withdrawn as a responsibility of the priests of the parishes and handed to
7840-584: The model of the German S-Bahn . This developed into the Réseau Express Régional (RER). As the Langevin plan involved crossing Paris underground, the operation of steam trains would have been problematic. In 1929, it was decided to electrify the line to Massy-Palaiseau. The Compagnie du Paris-Orléans refused to take on this work at its own expense. It nevertheless carried out the electrification due to its experience and then transferred
7952-478: The national rail network) by SNCF Réseau . With a capital of 3 million francs, it was one of five companies placed under sequestration by the State during the Crash of 1847, along with the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans on 4 April 1848, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Bordeaux à La Teste on 30 October 1848 and the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Marseille à Avignon on 21 November 1848. Similarly,
8064-521: The north, cities tended to be administered by échevins (from an old Germanic word meaning judge), while in the south, cities tended to be administered by consuls (in a clear reference to Roman antiquity), but Bordeaux was administered by jurats (etymologically meaning "sworn men") and Toulouse by capitouls ("men of the chapter"). Usually, there was no mayor in the modern sense; all the échevins or consuls were on equal footing, and rendered decisions collegially. However, for certain purposes, there
8176-523: The number of communes in the process – the Gemeinden of West Germany were decreased from 24,400 to 8,400 in the space of a few years – France only carried out mergers at the margin, and those were mostly carried out during the 19th century. From 41,000 communes at the time of the French Revolution, the number decreased to 37,963 in 1921, to 36,569 in 2008 (in metropolitan France). Thus, in Europe, only Switzerland has as high
8288-404: The number of municipalities compared to the large and populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (396 Gemeinden in September 2007). Despite differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ), which jointly manage the commune from the municipal hall ( mairie ), with exactly the same powers no matter
8400-631: The only partially successful statute enacted in 1966 and enabling urban communes to form urban communities or the more marked failure of the Marcellin law of 1971, the Chevènement law met with a large measure of success, so that a majority of French communes are now involved in intercommunal structures. There are two types of these structures: In exchange for the creation of a community, the government allocates money to them based on their population, thus providing an incentive for communes to team up and form communities. Communities of communes are given
8512-403: The place of the former communes, which are represented by a delegated mayor and a delegated council. Between 2012 and 2021, about 820 communes nouvelles have been established, replacing about 2,550 old communes. The expression "intercommunality" ( intercommunalité ) denotes several forms of cooperation between communes. Such cooperation first made its appearance at the end of the 19th century in
8624-541: The populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary widely in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris , to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes ( "lieu dit" or "bourg" ),
8736-481: The populations of both Bures-sur-Yvette and Orsay, which shared administrative responsibility for the town, a local plebiscite was held on 14 March 1976 to decide between three propositions: maintaining the status quo; creating a new commune comprising the three towns; creating a new commune for Les Ulis. Just over 50% of voters in Orsay and Bures-sur-Yvette favoured the last option, whereas a majority in Les Ulis favoured
8848-495: The provision of such services as refuse collection and water supply. Suburban communes often team up with the city at the core of their urban area to form a community charged with managing public transport or even administering the collection of local taxes. The Chevènement law tidied up all these practices, abolishing some structures and creating new ones. In addition, it offered central government finance aimed at encouraging further communes to join in intercommunal structures. Unlike
8960-462: The public on 23 June. This first section, which wound around several sharp curves and reverse curves from Bourg-la-Reine to enable a gradient of 1.15% and passed through an intermediate station called Fontenay (named after the street of Rue de Fontenay in Sceaux), had its terminus at Sceaux. The winding route was intended to prove the relevance and effectiveness of the Arnoux system. The gradient of
9072-408: The rails and wheels. He suggested separating the wheels from the same axle and hinging the axles on a central pivot instead of fixing them to the carriage frames. In addition, he recommended the use of a broad gauge of 1,750 mm ( 5 ft 8 + 7 ⁄ 8 in ) . This is called the Arnoux system ( système Arnoux ). In order to implement his system, Arnoux secured the adoption of
9184-410: The redevelopment of the infrastructure with high platforms and high-performance signalling made it a core section of a future regional metro, enabling it to double its traffic in less than a year. The section from Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse to Limours was abandoned in 1939. After a period of particularly high traffic during the Second World War and the following years, the 40 km (25 mi) long line
9296-468: The retention of Luxembourg station. As a result, the new tunnel was built with a 4.08% grade, beginning its descent just north of the station. This required the total reconstruction of the station and the establishment of a temporary terminus at the station, with one of the platforms being extended by means of wooden planks so that both sides of the trains had access to the platforms. A new station at Châtelet–Les Halles , built to give interchange with line A
9408-489: The revolution, and so they favored a powerful central state. Therefore, when they created the communes, they deprived them of any legal "personality" (as they did with the départements ), with only the central state having legal "personality." By 1837 that situation was judged impractical, as mayors and municipal councils could not be parties in courts. The consequence of the change, however, was that tens of thousands of villages which had never had legal "personality" (contrary to
9520-417: The right to elect its own mayor in 1977, the central government retained control of the Paris police. In all other French communes, the municipal police are under the mayor's supervision. French communes were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789–1790. Before the revolution, France's lowest level of administrative division was the parish ( paroisse ), and there were up to 60,000 of them in
9632-406: The same as those designed at the time of the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, with the same limits. Countless rural communes that had hundreds of inhabitants at the time of the French Revolution now have only a hundred inhabitants or fewer. On the other hand, cities and towns have grown so much that their urbanized area is now extending far beyond the limits of their commune which were set at
9744-403: The same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes . The median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with
9856-414: The size of the commune. This uniformity of status is a legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences in status that existed in the kingdom of France. French law makes allowances for the vast differences in commune size in a number of areas of administrative law. The size of the municipal council, the method of electing the municipal council,
9968-493: The station is located partly under the Seine. At the same time Cluny - La Sorbonne station on line 10 was reopened to provide interchange with line 10. The line is now operated by RATP from Gare du Nord to Robinson, Massy-Palaiseau and Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse; it is enjoying significant commercial success. In Paris, the trains follow one another every three minutes. Since 1987, line B has been operated by sets called MI 79 by
10080-475: The suburbs of Paris fearing the concept of a "Greater Paris", and so disunity still is the rule in the metropolitan area, with the suburbs of Paris creating many different intercommunal structures all without the city. Ligne de Sceaux The Ligne de Sceaux (Sceaux Line) was a railway line in France running from Paris , which initially linked the Place Denfert-Rochereau (then called
10192-609: The time of the revolution. The most extreme example of this is Paris, where the urbanized area sprawls over 396 communes. Paris in fact was one of the very few communes of France whose limits were extended to take into account the expansion of the urbanized area. The new, larger, commune of Paris was set up under the oversight of Emperor Napoléon III in 1859, but after 1859 the limits of Paris rigidified. Unlike most other European countries, which stringently merged their communes to better reflect modern-day densities of population (such as Germany and Italy around 1970), dramatically decreasing
10304-429: The town is situated at an average altitude of over 150m. Its highest point is at 170m. The land on which it is built consists of clay , sand and millstone . The town is divided into distinct neighbourhoods by the main roads running through it. To the east is a large industrial zone. To the west is the residential area, a large part of which consists of 33 HLM tower blocks, grouped into four neighbourhoods. The town
10416-550: The track did not exceed 3.0%. Although the structures were planned from the start to enable a double track, only a single track was laid for the opening. A second track was laid from Paris to Bourg-la-Reine in 1863. The line suffered from losses during its operations: while very profitable during fine weather, it struggled to attract travellers during the rest of the year. The company considered an extension to Orsay to improve its profitability. The first route considered would have branched off near Fontenay station and would have included
10528-433: The train stations at Orsay and Bures-sur-Yvette . Les Ulis finds itself at a significant meeting point of motorways. The most significant of these, the route nationale 118 , meets the route nationale 104 at an interchange on the communal border with the town of Marcoussis . The discovery in 1977 of Bronze Age tools in the neighbouring town of Villejust suggests the possibility of pre-historic human occupation of
10640-461: The unprofitable Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse – Limours section was abandoned on 15 May 1939 and replaced by a coach service. Automatic block light signalling was installed during the electrification. The colour-light signaling adopted was original and different from that of the SNCF ( Code Verlant ), since turning off a light made the signal more restrictive. Thus the absolute stop signal consisted of
10752-479: The valley of Saint-Paul. Thus, the Paris-Orleans was allowed to make a saving by not having to serve Chevreuse , even if it meant building a 2% ramp in the valley of Saint-Paul. The concession to build line "from Orsay to Limours" was officially granted to the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans by an agreement signed on 11 June 1863 between the Minister of Public Works and the Company. This agreement
10864-475: The winters of 1985 and 1986, when the new MI 79 sets suffered many breakdowns due to snow. In the 1970s, it was decided to connect the Sceaux line to the Gare du Nord and the lines of the Paris-Nord suburban network, in accordance with the "Master plan for development and town planning in the Paris region" ( Schéma directeur d'aménagement et d'urbanisme de la région de Paris ) of 1965. The route involved
10976-580: The world at the time, except in the empire of China (but there, only county level and above had any permanent administration). Since then, tremendous changes have affected France, as they have the rest of Europe: the Industrial Revolution , two world wars , and the rural exodus have all depopulated the countryside and increased the size of cities. French administrative divisions, however, have remained extremely rigid and unchanged. Today about 90 percent of communes and departments are exactly
11088-428: Was adopted, which created the legal framework for the communes nouvelles (lit. "new communes"). A commune nouvelle can be created by merger of a number of communes at the request of the municipal councils of all the communes or at the initiative of the state representative in the department (the prefect ). The municipal council of the new commune can decide to create communes déléguées (lit. "delegated communes") in
11200-421: Was approved by an imperial decree on 6 July 1863. The last section was inaugurated on 26 August 1867. It was built as a single track. Towards the end of the 19th century, the emergence of bogies overcame the problem of wear on rails and restrictions on speed through curves without resorting to the complex system, including broad gauge, designed by Arnoux. To make the Sceaux line compatible with other networks,
11312-531: Was at one time wooded, but was cleared during the Middle Ages . The name "Ullys" is first recorded as that of a feudal fee in a monastic inventory of 1382. In 1712, this land is recorded as belonging to Charles Boucher, an important Parisian civil servant. In 1767, it was transferred to Count Pierre Gaspard Marie Grimod d'Orsay . A significant farm of 160 hectares, the Grand Vivier, occupied much of
11424-438: Was carried out with overhead line , using the 1500 volts DC system. Electrification continued to the south and reached Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse on 1 January 1939. A new substation was installed near Gif-sur-Yvette . Electrification was never undertaken towards the town of Limours , which was always served over a single track by a Renault VH petrol railcar, operated every day from Versailles-Matelots . The operation of
11536-463: Was conceived and built in the 1970s according to the precepts of Le Corbusier by architects Robert Camelot, François Prieur and Georges-Henri Pingusson . Its tower blocks are raised on slabs so that they are accessed above street level by means of pedestrian walkways. The town incorporates a large urban park, to the north. Line B of the RER runs through the Chevreuse and local bus services give access to
11648-492: Was declared to be of public utility by a decree of 14 December 1889. In the 1890s, the line was extended in tunnel to a new Parisian terminus at Luxembourg . Vents were provided for the extraction of the steam locomotives' fumes. The Compagnie du Paris-Orléans also planned to move this terminus to its new Orsay station (later converted to house the Musée d'Orsay ), opened in 1900. The beginning of this extension still exists at
11760-405: Was enacted by a law of 20 March 1893. In 1913, the government considered that the electrification of the Sceaux line was not a priority, because the opening of the line from Paris to Chartres via Gallardon was imminent. Two of its four tracks would have been electrified, but this line was never finished. Meanwhile, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans was given a concession to extend
11872-439: Was impractical due to a succession of plateaus and valleys. The Paris-Orléans gained approval for a new route via Brétigny . Following the financial collapse of the Compagnie du chemin de fer Grand-Central de France and its dismantling organised by the State in 1857 for the benefit of the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans and the establishment of the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée ,
11984-587: Was inaugurated on 8 December 1977. The Sceaux line now formed the southern branch of RER line B. The connection between the Sceaux line in the south and the line to Roissy in the north (operated by the SNCF ) and to Mitry–Claye was finally completed at the Gare du Nord in 1983. The RER B opened in its entirety, with direct services between Charles de Gaulle Airport or Mitry-Claye and Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse or Robinson. The four letter "mission codes" were introduced:
12096-404: Was inaugurated to Orsay on 28 July 1854. The terminus was at a place called "les Planches", near the current Guichet . Despite some signs of financial improvement, the company remained fragile, and in particular could not acquire the rolling stock for the establishment of a freight service, which would nevertheless have been lucrative. The Compagnie du Paris-Orléans bought the Sceaux line from
12208-433: Was integrated into the Réseau Express Régional (Regional Express Network, RER) in 1977. It now constitutes the two southern branches of line B of the RER south of the Gare du Nord : branch B2 to Robinson and branch B4 to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. In 1838, Jean-Claude-Républicain Arnoux , a graduate of the École polytechnique , proposed a technical solution to improve the speed of trains in curves, while reducing wear on
12320-1053: Was one échevin or consul ranking above the others, a sort of mayor, although not with the same authority and executive powers as a modern mayor. This "mayor" was called provost of the merchants ( prévôt des marchands ) in Paris and Lyon; maire in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen , Orléans , Bayonne and many other cities and towns; mayeur in Lille ; premier capitoul in Toulouse; viguier in Montpellier ; premier consul in many towns of southern France; prêteur royal in Strasbourg ; maître échevin in Metz ; maire royal in Nancy ; or prévôt in Valenciennes . On 14 July 1789, at
12432-555: Was only reduced from 946 in 1971 (just before the Marcellin law aimed at encouraging French communes to merge with each other was passed, see Current debate section below) to 904 in January 2007. Consequently, the Alsace region—despite having a land area only one-fifth the size and a total population only one-sixth of that of its neighbor Baden-Württemberg—has almost as many municipalities. The small Alsace region has more than double
12544-470: Was the target of four Allied air raids in June 1944. The Bures sector was the target of a fifth air raid. Newly electrified, the line was served by Z 23000 (popularly known as Z ) railcars for fifty years. MS 61 sets, which later circulated on the RER A , also first operated on the line in 1967 and some MS 61 sets known as series A ran on the line until 1983. The last Z 23000s were withdrawn from service in 1987, not without having been of great help during
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