Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (often abbreviated to SGdB) is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the southern suburbs of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. It is located 23.5 km (14.6 miles) from the center of Paris, in the
arrondissement of Palaiseau
The arrondissement of Palaiseau is an Arrondissements of France, arrondissement of France in the Essonne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region. It has 68 Communes of France, communes. Its population is 63 ...
,
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.department,
Inhabitants of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois are known as ''Génovéfains''. There has been a settlement in what is now Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois since Roman times. In 1800 it was still a small settlement with around 100 inhabitants. After the
armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...
in 1918 the population was counted at less than 800. The boom started in the 1920s when inhabitants of Paris wanted affordable housing. This boom was in part because the railway station of Perray was built, connecting the town to Paris. The population at the moment is over 30.000 inhabitants, making it one of the larger settlements in the Essonne departement.
In 1926 the Château de la Cossonnerie was converted to a retirement home for
White émigré
White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik commun ...
s. It is locally known as the ''Maison Russe''. It is still a retirement home but also a centre for Russian Culture.
Population
Notable events
In 1963
Carrefour
Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, whic ...
opened its first
hypermarket
A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...
in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, at more than 2 500 square meters the largest in France at the time. This store is still active.
Ilan Halimi
The murder of Ilan Halimi ( he, אילן חלימי) was the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a young Frenchman of Moroccan Jewish ancestry in France in 2006. Halimi was kidnapped on 21 January 2006 by a group calling itself the Gang of Barbar ...
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
, who was kidnapped and tortured (leading to his eventual death) in 2006 by a group called the Gang of Barbarians, was found in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.
Tourism
Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois does not have an ''Office du Tourisme'' nor does the ''Mairie'' have tourist facilities. The town has set out a walking tour of the town taking in most of the important places in the town, taking in both the old and the new. Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois has a strong link with the Russian community living in France. The walk passes the Russian Necropolis, considered by some as the most important
necropolis
A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead".
The term usually im ...
of Russian emigrants in the world.
The town offers limited cycling, horse-riding and walking facilities. There is a campsite in neighbouring
Villiers-sur-Orge
Villiers-sur-Orge (, literally ''Villiers on Orge'') is a commune in the arrondissement of Palaiseau, in the Essonne department, in the Île-de-France region.
Inhabitants of Villiers-sur-Orge are known as ''Villiérains''.
Sites of interest
* ...
.
Sights
Attractions include the ''Donjon'', a park with animals, the town greenhouse, a grotto, and a Russian Necropolis. There are two main green spaces, the ''Bois des Trous'' and a parkland which borders on the river
Orge
The Orge () is a long river in France, left tributary of the Seine. Its source is in the village Saint-Martin-de-Bréthencourt. Its course crosses the '' départements'' of Yvelines and Essonne. It flows northwest through the towns of Dourdan, ...
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is one of the southern suburbs (
banlieue
In France, the term banlieue (; ) refers to a suburb of a large city. Banlieues are divided into autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the city proper. For instance, 80% of the inhabitants of the Paris Metropolitan Are ...
) of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. It is located from the center of Paris and lies just north of junction 42 on the orbital
Francilienne
The Francilienne () is a partially completed ring road in Île-de-France (the ''région'' that includes Paris), France, lying outside the A86.
The planned ring road is approximately in diameter, similar in size to London's M25 motorway. Start ...
autoroute.
Transport
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois has an
eponymous
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
located on the
Paris–Bordeaux railway
The railway from Paris to Bordeaux is an important French 584-kilometre long railway line, that connects Paris to the southwestern port city Bordeaux via Orléans and Tours. The railway was opened in several stages between 1840 and 1853, when the ...
and the
Transilien
Transilien () is the brand name given to the commuter rail network serving Île-de-France, the region surrounding and including the city of Paris. The network consists of eight lines: Transilien Line H, H, Transilien Line J, J, Transilien Line ...
which in part serves
RER line C
RER C is one of the five lines in the Réseau Express Régional (English: Regional Express Network), a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving Paris, France and its suburbs. The line crosses the region from north to south.
The li ...
to Paris.
From the railway station a number of bus lines connect the town to the region: lines CEAT (101, 102, 103, 104 and 105), Daniel Meyer (DM6A and DM17A)
Image:SGdB-Eglise.JPG, Church and square
Image:SGdB-Marché au Donjon.JPG, Public market
Image:SGdB-Chateau.JPG, Château and Donjon
Image:SGdB-Carrefour.JPG, The first
Carrefour
Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, whic ...
hypermarket
Twin towns - sister cities
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is twinned with:
*
Mikołów
Mikołów (german: Nikolai, szl, Mikołōw) is a town in Silesia, in southern Poland, near the city of Katowice. It borders the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of over 2 million, and is within a greater Silesia ...
, Poland
*
Obertshausen
Obertshausen () is a town in the Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in the state of Hesse, Germany. It has around 24,000 inhabitants.
Geography
Location
Obertshausen is one of 13 towns and municipalities in the Offenba ...
, Germany
*
Penafiel
Penafiel ( or () is a municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the northern Portuguese district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion, the population was 72,265 in 2011, in an area of .
History
The region ...