Coordinates: 48°50′10″N 2°14′32″E / 48.83611°N 2.24222°E / 48.83611; 2.24222 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 mi) 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 reconverted into business services and is now home to major communication companies headquartered in the Val de Seine business district. The original name of the commune was Boulogne-sur-Seine (meaning "Boulogne upon Seine"). 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, then a famous pilgrimage center in northern France. 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. 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). 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". [edit] History On 1 January 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 Boulogne-Billancourt is famous for being the birthplace of three major industries: cinema, automobile, aircraft industries. [edit] Demographics [edit] Immigration Place of birth of residents of Boulogne-Billancourt in 1999 | Born in Metropolitan France | Born outside 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 largely of pieds-noirs from Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), and to a lesser extent 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, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics.
² An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants. | | [edit] Population changes Demographic evolution | 1936 | 1954 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | | 97 379 | 93 998 | 109 008 | 103 578 | 102 582 | 101 743 | 106 367 | 110 251 | [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] Economy The headquarters of Renault are in Boulogne-Billancourt.[1] [edit] Miscellaneous - 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.
[edit] Births Boulogne-Billancourt was the birthplace of: - Pierre Bellemare, actor, writer
- Bertrand Blier (born 14 March 1939), screenwriter and film director; son of Bernard Blier
- Booba, MC
- Daniel Buren (born 1938), conceptual artist
- Guillaume Canet (born 10 April 1973), actor, screenwriter and director
- Leslie Caron (born 1931), film actress and dancer
- Benjamin Castaldi (born 28 March 1970), TV presenter and producer; son of actor Jean-Pierre Castaldi, former husband of fellow TV presenter Flavie Flament
- Matthieu Chedid (born 21 December 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 13 April 1931), screenwriter and film director
- Alain Feydeau (born 21 July 1934), actor
- Anna Gavalda (born 1970), best-selling novelist
- Hippolyte Girardot (born 10 October 1955), actor
- André Glucksmann (born 1937), political philosopher, writer
- Anne Goscinny (born 19 May 1968), daughter of comics-maker René Goscinny (Astérix), and writer Gilberte Goscinny
- David Hallyday, (born David Smet on 14 August 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 25 February 1968), actress; wife of fellow French actor Vincent Lindon
- Louise L. Lambrichs (born 1952), novelist and screenwriter
- Gérard Lanvin (born 21 June 1950), actor
- Corinne Lepage (born 11 May 1951), actress
- Marc Levy (born 16 October 1961), international best-sellers writer
- Thierry Lhermitte (born 24 November 1952), actor, co-writer (usually with the band of the Splendid), director, producer.
- François Mativet (born May 21, 1949), guitarist
- Nelson Monfort (born 12 March 1954), TV presenter, translator, sports commentator for French public television.
- Roger Monteaux (born 18 July 1879), actor
- Bulle Ogier (born Marie-France Thielland on 9 August 1939), actress
- Claude Pinoteau, actor, director, writer, producer
- Jérôme Pradon (born 3 June 1964), stage actor
- Thierry Roland (born 4 August 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 28 March 1952), former actor, now writer and producer.
- Catherine Spaak (born 3 April 1945), actress
- Agnès Spaak (born 29 April 1944), actress
- Georgette Tissier (26 June 1910–30 March 1957 in Paris), actress
- Marie Trintignant (1962–2003), actress
- Gaspard Ulliel, (born 25 November 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
[edit] =International relations [edit] Twin towns — Sister cities Boulogne-Billancourt is twinned with: - Since 1955:
- Since 1968:
- Since 1993:
[edit] In popular culture - The animated TV show Code Lyoko is reportedly set in Boulogne-Billancourt, according to comparison maps on Codelyoko.net.
[edit] References - ^ "BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT - RSAS." Renault. Retrieved on 22 September 2009.
[edit] External links  Communes in the metropolitan area of Paris | | | Population over 2 million | | | | Population over 75,000 | | | | Population over 50,000 | | | | Population over 25,000 | | | | Population under 25,000 | 1,459 other communes | | |
