Nogent-le-Rotrou () 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

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture 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 with the count living in the impressive

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

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 Perche 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 Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. 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 pump An infusion pump infuses fluids, medication or nutrients into a patient's circulatory system. It is generally used intravenously, although subcutaneous, arterial and epidural infusions are occasionally used. Infusion pumps can administer flu ...

s 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 (1822–1878), painter, children's writer *

Gustave Le Bon Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon (; 7 May 1841 – 13 December 1931) was a leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. He is best known for his 1895 work '' The Crowd ...

(born 1841), social psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist * Yoann Kowal (born 1987), athlete *

Paul Tirard Paul Tirard (2 June 1879 – 23 December 1945) was chairman of the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission from 1919 to 1930. Biography He was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou on 2 June 1879 into a family of industrialists, son of Ferdinand Tirard. H ...

(born 1879), diplomat *

Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully Maximilien de Béthune, 1st Duke of Sully, Marquis of Rosny and Nogent, Count of Muret and Villebon, Viscount of Meaux (13 December 156022 December 1641) was a nobleman, soldier, statesman, and counselor of King Henry IV of France. Historians emp ...

* Mathilde Mauté, wife of the poet

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and ...

References

External links