Église Saint-Sébastien - Villeneuve-d'Ascq

Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; pcd, Neuvile-Ask) is a commune in the

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

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. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area (27.46 km²) after Lille. It is also one of the main cities of the

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; pcd, Heuts-d'Franche; , also ''Upper France'') is the northernmost Regions of France, region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its Prefectu ...

region. Built up owing to the merger between the former communes of Ascq,

Annappes Annappes () is a village and former commune of the Nord Department of France, on the river Marque. In 1970, it was merged with the communes of Ascq and Flers-lez-Lille to form the new commune of Villeneuve d'Ascq.Flers-lez-Lille Flers-lez-Lille is a former commune in the Nord department in northern France, merged into Villeneuve-d'Ascq in 1970.

, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is a

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

and the cradle of the first automatic metro system of the world (

VAL Val may refer to: Val-a Film * ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo Military equipment * Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies * AS Val, a Sov ...

). Villeneuve-d'Ascq is nicknamed the 'green technopole' thanks to the implantation of many researchers, including two campuses of the University of Lille and many graduate engineering schools, and companies in a pleasant living environment. Owing to its activity centres, its

Haute Borne Haute Borne is a new district of Villeneuve d'Ascq city, in France. It hosts the ''Haute Borne European scientific park''. The aim of this area is to be home from high-tech companies and research and development centers, which can take advantage o ...

European scientific park and two shopping malls, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is one of the main economic spots of the

region; multinational corporations such as

Bonduelle Bonduelle is a French company producing processed vegetables. History * The company was founded in 1853, when Louis Bonduelle-Dalle (23 October 1802 - 13 November 1880) and Louis Lesaffre-Roussel (1802–1869) established a grain and juniper b ...

, Cofidis and

Decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

have their head office there. Outside its academic, scientific and business facilities, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is known for its sporting events, boasting two stadiums ( Stade Pierre-Mauroy and

Stadium Lille Métropole Stadium Lille-Métropole is a multi-purpose stadium in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France. The stadium was built in 1976 and is able to hold 18,154 spectators. The architect of the stadium was Roger Taillibert. It was used as the temporary home stadium of ...

) and some top division sports teams, its museums, e.g. the

Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art The Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art (LaM), formerly known as Villeneuve d'Ascq Museum of Modern Art, is an art museum in Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. With more than 4,500 artworks on a exhibition area, the LaM is ...

), its green spaces, and its facilities for disabled people.

Name

Its name means "new city of Ascq" in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

. Ascq is possibly derived from the Dutch word for "ash". The name of the city is generally written without the customary (official) hyphen.

Geography

The city counts approximately of greenspace, lakes, forests and arable lands. It is located between Lille and Roubaix, at the crossroads of the principal freeways towards Paris, Ghent,

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and Brussels.

History

Development on what is now Villeneuve-d'Ascq can be traced back to the Celtic Gaul era, and are anchored in two feudal mounds, a Gallo-Roman site and a

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

one. The area was selected in the 1960s to accommodate a

then designated the name ''Lille-Est'', which was to channel the growth of the agglomeration of Lille city and development of institutions based in the area. The commune of Villeneuve-d'Ascq was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the communes of Ascq,

Annappes Annappes () is a village and former commune of the Nord Department of France, on the river Marque. In 1970, it was merged with the communes of Ascq and Flers-lez-Lille to form the new commune of Villeneuve d'Ascq.Flers.INSEE commune file
/ref> Its name evokes at the same time the new (''neuve'') and the old: former commune Ascq and its memory as martyr town of 1 April 1944, date on which the Nazis massacred 86 men ( Ascq massacre). The city's merger with Lille was contentious and failed twice (1972 and 1976).

Population

Data before 1970 in the table and graph below refer to the old commune Annappes, before the merger with Ascq and Flers-lez-Lille.

Economy

Businesses and public organizations

Different kinds of businesses have their headquarters in Villeneuve d'Ascq because of the availability of land, the presence of researchers (in particular in the Cité Scientifique and

) and the proximity to both Benelux and Paris economic regions. Villeneuve d'Ascq notably hosts the headquarters of the food processing company

, the financial services provider Cofidis, the sporting goods retailer

, the chocolate manufacturer Bouquet d'Or, the disposable dishes manufacturer Tifany Industrie, the IT security company Netasq, the restaurant chains Flunch, Les 3 Brasseurs, Pizza Paï. Furthermore, Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts the Europe, the Middle East and Africa headquarters of IT consulting company SoftThinks and the European headquarters and R&D center of Canadian frozen foods company McCain Foods. It is home to the central buying service of international retail group

Auchan Auchan () is a French multinational retail group headquartered in Croix, France. It was founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez and is owned by the Mulliez family, who has 95% stake in the company. With 354,851 employees, of which 261,000 have 5% s ...

, a R&D center of multinational agri-processor Tate & Lyle, and a data processing center of American company Xerox. Villeneuve d'Ascq also hosts numerous administration and public organizations offices. The Northern headquarters of French national meteorological service

Météo-France Météo-France is the French national meteorological service. Organisation The organisation was established by decree in June 1993 and is a department of the Ministry of Transportation. It is headquartered in Paris but many domestic operatio ...

, large barracks of the National Gendarmerie (450 gendarmes and their family), the Northern headquarters of the Regional Center for Traffic Information and Coordination ( :fr:Centre régional d'information et de circulation routière). Since 1998, there are large offices of the mobile network operator and Internet service provider Orange, along with the information computing center of

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...

for the Northern and Western France region. From 1984 to 1994 Villeneuve d'Ascq housed a

Groupe Bull Bull SAS (also known as Groupe Bull, Bull Information Systems, or simply Bull) is a French computer company headquartered in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, in the western suburbs of Paris. The company has also been known at various times as Bull General El ...

factory that developed, manufactured and marketed desktops personal computers; the site is currently used by offices of

. There was also a Rhône-Poulenc chemical factory, now housing offices of mail order company

3 Suisses 3 Suisses is a French mail order and e-commerce company, with headquarters in Villeneuve-d'Ascq. It is the biggest of the 16 e-commerce brands of . Everett Hutt is the current CEO as of 2022. Since 1981, Otto GmbH owned a 51% in the company and ...

. Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts the Northern head office of Textile and Clothing French Institute (IFTH) which assist industry for their technological and economical development. Finally, 2000 businesses are implanted in the city.

Shops and trade

Two huge shopping centers are located in the technopole. The indoor/roofed ''Centre commercial V2'', founded in 1977, which, when created, was the largest shopping center north of Paris and is still the largest in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area. A new outdoor one opened in 2009, ''Heron Parc'', a shopping center located near ''V2'', hosting numerous stores of Groupe Auchan and a 12 auditoriums movie theater.

Education and science

Villeneuve d'Ascq is the first academic pole of the metropolitan area. Numerous academic and scientific facilities are located there (around 42,000 students and 2,500 researchers).

Universities and tertiary institutions

The city hosts two main campuses of the University of Lille : "Cité Scientifique" (Science and Technology); and "Pont de Bois" (Social sciences, Humanities, Literature and Arts). Those two campuses count a half of the Community of Universities and Institutions (COMUE) Lille Nord de France students. Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts also a University Institute for Technology (IUT A), the school in architecture École nationale supérieure d'architecture et de paysage de Lille, along with five graduate schools : École centrale de Lille, École nationale supérieure de chimie de Lille, Polytech'Lille (formerly EUDIL), École des Mines-Télécom de Lille-Douai (IMT) (formerly ENIC, TELECOM LILLE), École supérieure des techniques industrielles et des textiles (ESTIT).

Primary and secondary education

There are 20 public ''maternelles'' (preschools/nurseries), 17 public ''élémentaires'' (primary schools), and 6 public combined preschools and elementary schools. There are also five public ''collèges'' (junior high schools): Camille Claudel, Simone de Beauvoir, Moliere, Rimbaud, and Triolo. The two public ''lycées'' (senior high schools/sixth-form colleges) in the commune are

Lycée Raymond Queneau In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

and

Lycée professionnel Dinah Derycke In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

.Écoles à Villeneuve d'Ascq
" Villeneuve-d'Ascq Town Hall. Retrieved on May 9, 2017
Read online
/ref> There is one combined private elementary through high school,

École Saint-Adrien École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. There is also a private junior high school, Collège privé communautaire; and four private combined preschool and elementary schools, Notre-Dame, Saint-Pierre d'Ascq, Cardinal Liénart, and Saint-Henri.

Miscellaneous education

200 public and private laboratories whose 31 of them members of French National Centre for Scientific Research are located in the technopole. Some main research institute are situated in Villeneuve d'Ascq, for example IEMN ( Institut d'électronique de microélectronique et de nanotechnologie), INRIA Lille ( National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control), IFSTTAR ( Institut national de recherche sur les transports et leur sécurité), INRA ( Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), the veterinary laboratory of the Nord department, l'IRIS (Institut de recherche de l'industrie sucrière), ITF-Nord (Institut textile de France). At last but not least, the technopole hosts the European scientific park ''Haute Borne'', 150 hectare next to Université Lille 1.

Administration

Having succeeded Gérard Caudron as mayor from 1977 to 2001,

Jean-Michel Stievenard Jean-Michel is a French masculine given name. It may refer to : * Jean-Michel Arnold, General Secretary of the Cinémathèque Française * Jean-Michel Atlan (1913–1960), French artist * Jean-Michel Aulas (born 1949), French businessman * Jean- ...

and his team wish to maintain balances the environnement and the economic development, the greenery and technology, the daily wellbeing and the great projects, the social one and quality, opening on its internal comfort and rest of the world, its finance and high degree of public utility. The mayors of Villeneuve-d'Ascq since 1977 have been members of the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste).In 2008, the local elections brought back to the city council Gerard Caudron as mayor. Villeneuve-d'Ascq is the seat of the

canton of Villeneuve-d'Ascq The canton of Villeneuve-d'Ascq is an administrative division of the Nord department, northern France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Villeneuve-d'Ascq. It consists of the fo ...

Transport

As a part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is connected to Lille city centre by a

, a type of fully automatic (driverless) light rubber-tired metro. The VAL metro line runs through Villeneuve-d'Ascq from Quatre-Cantons and Cité Scientifique stations and drives up to Lille historical city centre and railways stations in about ten minutes. In fact, while the acronym VAL now officially stands for ''Véhicule Automatique Léger'' (automatic light vehicle), it was originally for ''Villeneuve-d'Ascq à Lille'' (meaning Villeneuve-d'Ascq to Lille), the route of the first line to be projected, and inaugurated on 25 April 1983. The Villeneuve d'Ascq metro station is under the Place Salvador Allende (Salvadore Allende Square) and a shopping centre which includes

as one of its main tenants. Villeneuve-d'Ascq is also served by the train station Gare d'Ascq, which offers connections to Lille, Orchies and Tournai and Liège in Belgium.

Sport

Honours and statistics

The city received many awards for its sporting activities. In 1994, the newspaper L'Equipe ranked Villeneuve d'Ascq in the five most sportive cities in France. In 1996, Villeneuve d'Ascq was elected the 'most sportive city of France', and in 1999, 'the most disabled sportive city'. It is a logical result because the city invests a lot in sport. In 2009, 21,700 inhabitants had a sport licence in the sport club of Villeneuve d'Ascq (one third of the global population of the city) ; the city hosts 158 different sport associations, 58 different sports and 14% of the city operating budget is dedicated to sport. The city has 10.99 hectares of

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and rugby fields, of track and field facilities and of hiking trails.

Facilities

Villeneuve d'Ascq has two

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

s ('piscine du Triolo' and 'centre nautique Babylone') both equipped with a 50m long water slide, an outside grass area, saunas and a training gym. The city hosts two major stadiums,

(21,650 seats) and Stade Pierre-Mauroy (50,186 seats). Villeneuve d'Ascq have 16 soccer fields, 2 rugby fields (stadium E. Théry, Tradition street), 17 municipal gymnasiums plus 8 academic gymnasiums (E.S.U.M.), a sport complex called 'Palacium' (Pont de Bois avenue) and a gymnasium (salle d'Agrees, Breughel street) dedicated to gymnastics. The city hosts a sailing base, two shooting galleries, a bow and arrow gallery, two golf courses, 12 tennis courts, two athletics facilities (Parmentier street and Lieutenant Colpin street). Finally, we can find in Villeneuve d'Ascq two dojos, a big wall for wall-climbing (salle Tamise), a bourloire in Ascq, a boulodrome in Residence and a bowling in Hôtel de Ville.

Sporting events and teams

Football (soccer)

Villeneuve d'Ascq is home to several football teams which play in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais football league, in Flandre district: US Ascq (promotion d'honneur), Villeneuve d'Ascq Métropole (promotion d'honneur) and Flers OS Villeneuve d'Ascq (1ère division de district). The Stadium Nord hosted two international exhibition games: France - Tunisia in 1978 and France - Armenia in 1996. The Stadium Nord is the official stadium of the Lille Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole team (Ligue 1) since the 2004-2005 season, and also the official stadium of the Entente Sportive de Wasquehal team since 1997-1998 season (formerly Ligue 2, today CFA 2). In 1997, Stadium Nord was the home stadium of the Royal Excelsior Mouscron for the UEFA Europa League. The stadium hosted the UEFA Europa League matches of Lille Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole, so prestigious clubs such as Fenerbahçe SK, FC Sevilla, Valencia CF and Liverpool FC came to Villeneuve d'Ascq. In 2010, the Fédération française de football organised in Stadium Nord the ''Festifoot féminin'', an event with 500 feminine soccer player footballeuses. The France women's national football team were there and also some women's international footballers. In May, 2010 Stade Pierre-Mauroy was selected by the Fédération française de football (FFF) to host matches in the UEFA Euro 2016, hosted by France.

Rugby

Villeneuve d'Ascq is home to a rugby union team, Lille Métropole Rugby Club Villeneuvois (ex-Rugby Club Villeneuve d'Ascq), whose senior women's team takes part in France women's rugby union championship. The women's team is in Division 1 since 1999 and in Elite since his victory ath the Challenge Armelle Auclair in 2006. The Stadium Nord hosted the quarter-final of Rugby World cup in 1991 New Zealand vs. Canada (36 000 spectators). It also hosted the semi-final of European Rugby Cup 2000-2001 Stade français vs. Munster. In 2005, Stadium Nord hosted matches from the under 17 y.o. rugby tournament. The Stadium Nord frequently hosts exhibition matches of the France rugby A team.

Track and field

The Stadium Nord hosts every year since 1988 an international meeting of track and field (formerly called ''meeting open Gaz de France'', then ''Open du Nord'' and now ''meeting d'athlétisme Lille Métropole''). The meeting is part of the national athletism league since 2007. In Stadium Nord took place the Track and field European Cup in 1995 and the Disabled Track and field World Cup in 2002.

Other sports

Villeneuve d'Ascq has a famous basketball club, ESB Villeneuve-d'Ascq which plays in Ligue Féminine de Basketball. The city has also an american football club, Vikings de Villeneuve d'Ascq (Division 2) and a

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

club, Hand Ball Club Villeneuve d'Ascq (HBCV) (Division 2). The cycling tournament Tour de France arrived in Villeneuve d'Ascq in 1988. Sportsmen who came from Villeneuve d'Ascq clubs include tennis players Sarah Pitkowski and Nathalie Dechy.

Culture

The city keeps of its past of many vestiges, sites and equipment. Villeneuve-d'Ascq possesses a famous museum, the

(

LaM Lam or LAM may refer to: Organizations * Laguna Art Museum, California, US * Lam Eng Rubber, a Malaysian manufacturer * Lam Research, American semiconductor equipment company * LAM Mozambique Airlines, flag carrier airline of Mozambique * Librar ...

). One can visit the forum of sciences

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

, the rebuildings of a Gaulois village to the archeological park Asnapio.

Twin towns – sister cities

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: *

Haidari HaidariFor the spelling, see thmunicipal website ( el, Χαϊδάρι, ''Khaidari'') is a suburb in the western part of the Athens agglomeration, west of central Athens. Geography The municipality has an area of 22.655 km2. The geography of ...

, Greece *

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

, Romania * Leverkusen, Germany * Ouidah, Benin *

La Possession La Possession () is a commune in the French overseas department of Réunion. It is located on the northwest side of the island of Réunion, between the capital of Saint-Denis and the commune of Le Port. To the territory of this commune belo ...

, Réunion, France * Racibórz, Poland * Stirling, Scotland *

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...

, Belgium

Gallery

Cité scientifique (Métro de Lille).jpg Jielbeaumadier lac heron3 2007.jpg Cité scientifique IFSTTAR, Meteo France & parc technologique.jpg Jielbeaumadier moulins vda 2008.jpg Jielbeaumadier triolo allee talleyrand 2007.jpg Jielbeaumadier metro ligne2 vda 2010.jpg

References

External links

*
Museum of modern artForum des sciences (Centre François Mitterrand)Office of tourism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villeneuve D'ascq Communes of Nord (French department) Science parks in France High-technology business districts in France New towns in France New towns started in the 1960s French Flanders