Nogent-le-Rotrou () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in northern France. It is a

sub-prefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefecture ...

and is located on the river

Huisne The Huisne () is a long river in France. It is a left tributary of the river Sarthe, which it meets in Le Mans. Its source is near the town of Pervenchères, in the Orne department. The Huisne flows through the following departments and towns: ...

, 56 kilometres west of

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as d ...

on the RN23 and 150 kilometres south west of Paris, to which it is linked by both rail and motorway. It was the former capital of the

Perche Perche () (French: ''le Perche'') is a former province of France, known historically for its forests and, for the past two centuries, for the Percheron draft horse breed. Until the French Revolution, Perche was bounded by four ancient territorie ...

with the count living in the impressive medieval

Château Saint-Jean The Château Saint-Jean is a castle in the ''Communes of France, commune'' of Nogent-le-Rotrou in the Eure-et-Loir ''Departments of France, département'' of France. History Château Saint-Jean, which overlooks the roads from Chartres to Le Mans a ...

which still dominates the town from a plateau of the same name.

Economy

The town lies within the

at the heart of a vast agricultural zone. Many jobs were therefore tied to agriculture, but the numbers declined sharply from the late 1970s with up to 5% of jobs being shed each year. Industrial employment owed much to the automotive sector which counted for almost 10% of jobs in the 1980s and 1990s and these were heavily linked to components manufacturer,

Valeo Valeo is a French global automotive supplier headquartered in France, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange ( CAC-40 Index). It supplies a wide range of products to automakers and the aftermarket. The Group employs 113,600 people in 33 countries wo ...

. The company had a local workforce of over 1000 in 1999, but this too has been in decline as

has delocalised to follow clients such as Renault to Romania. The headcount had fallen to 800 by April 2007, when Valeo announced that would be cutting a further 260 jobs between July 2007 and December 2009. All is not doom and gloom, however, as the German medical and pharmaceutical supplier,

B. Braun Melsungen B. Braun is a German medical and pharmaceutical device company, which currently has more than 63,000 employees globally, and offices and production facilities in more than 60 countries. Its headquarters are located in Melsungen, in central Ge ...

announced B. Braun investit 20 millions à Nogent-le-Rotrou (in French) http://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/b-braun-investit-20-millions-a-nogent-le-rotrou.158498 Feb. 12 2009 in early 2009 that it would be investing 20 million euros to modernise its local plant for it to specialise in the production of infusion pumps used in the intravenous administration of drugs. As a result, employment on the B. Braun site is to increase from 450 to 500. There is also a large military presence, with the town being the base for one of France's three

civil defense Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, miti ...

units. L'Unité d'instruction et d'intervention de la Sécurité civile n°1 (UIISC1) was created in 1978 and in 2001 there were 650 men at the base. They are used both at home and abroad, in all types of disaster situation. The Nogent region counted 14,407 jobs in 1999, which were broken down as follows : Agriculture : 6.8% (France = 4.1), Industry : 32.5 (France = 18.4), Construction 5.5%, (France = 5.8) and Services = 55.2% (France = 71.7).

Population

Administration

The previous mayor was the centre-left François Huwart, who has held power between 1989 and 2020. He followed in the footsteps of his father, Robert Huwart, who was mayor from 1965 to 1987.

Prominent people connected to Nogent-le-Rotrou

Clara Filleul Clara Pauline Filleul, also Clara Filleul de Pétigny, (née Claire Pauline Filleul) (1822–1878) was a French painter and children's writer. Together with the painter Raymond Monvoisin she travelled to South America in the late 1840s, becoming ...

(1822–1878), painter, children's writer * Gustave Le Bon (born 1841), social psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist *

Yoann Kowal Yoann Kowal (born 28 May 1987) is a French middle distance runner who specializes in the 1500 metres and 3000 metres steeplechase. Personal life Kowal is married to Marianne and has a daughter Elea. His father Daniel held the national title in ...

(born 1987), athlete * Paul Tirard (born 1879), diplomat * Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully * Mathilde Mauté, wife of the poet Paul Verlaine

References

External links