Bobigny () 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 ...

, or town, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris,

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Bobigny is the

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

(capital city) of the

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobigny ...

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, ...

, as well as the seat of the

Arrondissement of Bobigny The arrondissement of Bobigny is an arrondissement of France in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in the Île-de-France region. It has 9 communes. Its population is 431,444 (2019), and its area is . Composition The communes of the arrondissement ...

. It is the 11th most populous ''commune'' in Seine-Saint-Denis (2019). Inhabitants are called ''Balbyniens''. Bobigny is the seat of the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture. The first

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...

store in France was located in this commune.

Transport

Bobigny is served by two stations on

Paris Métro Line 5 Paris Métro Line 5 is one of the 16 Metro lines built in Paris, France. It crosses the east of Paris from Bobigny – Pablo Picasso to Place d'Italie. It is the eighth-busiest line on the network. History On 15 June 2011 the MF 01 began ente ...

: Bobigny – Pantin – Raymond Queneau and

Bobigny – Pablo Picasso Bobigny () is a commune, or town, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Bobigny is the prefecture (capital city) of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, as well as the seat of the A ...

. It can also be reached from the outer terminus of

Paris Métro Line 7 Paris Métro Line 7 is one of sixteen lines of the Paris Métro system. Crossing the capital from its north-eastern to south-eastern sections via a moderately curved path, it links La Courneuve – 8 mai 1945 in the north with Mairie d'Ivry an ...

La Courneuve La Courneuve () is a Communes of France, commune in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, center of Paris. History Inhabited since pre-Roman times, the area is thought to have been a small village up through the Midd ...

Economy

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 ...

has management branches (Valeo Transmissions group and Valeo Friction Materials group) here. It was also the manufacturing base used by

Meccano Meccano is a brand of scale model, model construction system created in 1898 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, England. The system consists of reusable metal strips, plates, Structural steel#Common structural shapes, angle girders, wheels, axles and ...

for French ''

Dinky Toys Dinky Toys was the brand name for a range of die-cast toy, die-cast zamak zinc alloy scale model model car, vehicles produced by British toy company Meccano Ltd. They were made in England from 1934 to 1979, at a factory in Binns Road in Liverpo ...

'' from 1933 until 1970, when the factory was closed and later demolished. Production of Dinky Toys was then transferred to the Meccano factory in

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

until 1972, when the last new model, a Renault 4 la poste, was produced.

Toponymy

Its name is derived from Roman-period ''Balbiniacum'', "the place of Balbo or Balbinus or Balbinius"; or "of the dumb or silent man/men" (

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium ...

Irish Gaelic Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was the ...

''balbh'' = "dumb, silent").

History

During World War II, approximately 20,000 Jews were shipped from a railway station in Bobigny. Their ultimate destinations were the Nazi camps.

Population

List of mayors

Education

The commune has 14 public preschools (''écoles maternelles''), 15 public elementary schools, four public junior high schools, three public senior high schools/sixth-form colleges, and one private school.Scolarité et enseignements
" Bobigny. Retrieved on 4 September 2016. * Junior high schools: Collège Auguste Delaune, Collège Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Collège Pierre Sémard, and Collège République et SEGPA
" Bobigny. Retrieved on 4 September 2016. *Senior high/Sixth-form:

Lycée professionnel Alfred Costes 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 ...

Lycée Louise Michel 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 ...

Lycée polyvalent André Sabatier 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 ...

* École, collège et lycée Charles Péguy is a private school from elementary to senior high/sixth-form There is also a school of hotel management, École hôtelière de Bobigny. The Bobigny campus of

Paris 13 University Sorbonne Paris North University (french: Université Sorbonne Paris Nord) is a public university based in Paris, France. It is one of the thirteen universities that succeeded the University of Paris in 1968. It is a multidisciplinary university l ...

is its second-largest. It focuses on the medical sciences, and hosts a strong medical degree.

Personalities

Bobigny is the birthplace of: *

Charles Itandje Charles Hubert Itandje (born 2 November 1982) is a retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in France, Itandje represented the Cameroon national team. Club career Lens Born in Bobigny (a suburb of Paris) of Cameroonian ...

(born 1982),

football goalkeeper Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ca ...

Gaël Monfils Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...

, tennis player * Valentin Courrent, rugby player * Odsonne Edouard, football player Bobigny is the place of death of: • Jacques Brel, Belgian singer-songwriter.

Heraldry

International relations

Bobigny is twinned with: *

Serpukhov Serpukhov ( rus, Серпухов, p=ˈsʲɛrpʊxəf) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Oka and the Nara Rivers, south from Moscow ( from Moscow Ring Road) on the Moscow—Simferopol highway. The Moscow— T ...

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast ( rus, Моско́вская о́бласть, r=Moskovskaya oblast', p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ), or Podmoskovye ( rus, Подмоско́вье, p=pədmɐˈskovʲjə, literally "under Moscow"), is a federal subject of Rus ...

(Russia) *

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

(Germany)

References

External links

Official website
(in French) {{Authority control Communes of Seine-Saint-Denis Prefectures in France