Gonesse () is a commune in the

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.< ...

department, in the north-eastern suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The commune lies approximately eight kilometres (five miles) north of Le Bourget Airport, and it is six kilometres (four miles) south-west of Charles de Gaulle International Airport.

History

Since

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

times, cereals have been grown in Gonesse. In the period of the 12th through to the 16th centuries, the cultivation of grain was supplemented by drapery, in particular the production of the coarse woollen material of the ''gaunace''.Histoire de Gonesse – Quelques repères historiques
. ''Ville-gonesse.fr''. Retrieved 11 July 2011. The commune was an important producer of

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

for the

ian market in modern times, until the decline of its bakery trade at the end of the 18th century helped feed a strong migration to the capital. WasserstoffballonProfCharles

The world's first hydrogen filled

balloon A balloon is a flexible membrane bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. For special purposes, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), ...

—the unmanned balloon launched by

Jacques Charles Jacques Alexandre César Charles (12 November 1746 – 7 April 1823) was a French people, French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due ...

and the

Robert brothers Les Frères Robert were two French brothers. Anne-Jean Robert (1758–1820) and Nicolas-Louis Robert (1760–1828) were the engineers who built the world's first hydrogen balloon for professor Jacques Charles, which flew from central Paris on ...

from the

Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...

in Paris on 27 August 1783—flew for 45 minutes and landed in Gonesse, where the reportedly terrified local peasants destroyed it with pitchforks. This caused the government to issue a statement on the harmlessness and the scientific value of such experiments. In 1815, Marshal Grouchy arrived in Gonesse in the course of the

War of the Sixth Coalition In the War of the Sixth Coalition () (December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (), a coalition of Austrian Empire, Austria, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, Russian Empire, Russia, History of Spain (1808– ...

, with 40,000 troops and 120 artillery pieces. On 2 July, the

Duke of Wellington Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ar ...

made his headquarters at the commune. Since June 1939, the property Frapart (the ''Castle'') is used as the main establishment of the urban administration. Jean Camus, Louis Furmanek, Pierre Lorgnet, and Albert Drouhot from Gonesse belonged to the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

movement during the

German occupation of France The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...

from 1940 to 1944. On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590—a

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

supersonic transport—crashed onto a hotel in the town after a tyre blew out, caused by running over a strip of metal that had fallen off a

DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 was intended to succeed the DC-8 for long-range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; it was introduced on August 5, 1971 ...

at nearby Charles de Gaulle International Airport. The crash led to the deaths of all 109 people on board and four more on the ground. The Concorde crash occurred fewer than 6 km from Goussainville, the site of the crash of the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 during the 1973

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (, ''Salon du Bourget'') is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in France. Organized by the French aerospace industry's primary representative body, the ''Groupement des industries frança ...

Population

Sights

Among the places worthwhile to visit in the town are the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, the old Hotel-Dieu, the Hotel-Dieu, the lofts Garlande and Orgemont, and the estates of Malmaison and of Coulanges.

Transport

Gonesse is served neither by the Paris Métro, RER, nor the suburban rail network. The closest station is the Villiers-le-Bel–Gonesse–Arnouville station on the Paris RER D. This station is located in the neighbouring commune of Arnouville-lès-Gonesse, from Gonesse town centre.

Education

, the commune had 20 municipal primary schools with a total of 3,526; pupils, including 11 pre-schools (''écoles maternelles'') with a total of 1,389 pupils (in addition to 20 children in ''toute petite'' programmes) and nine elementary schools with 2,137 total pupils. Junior high schools: * College Philippe Auguste * Collège Robert Doisneau * Collège François Truffaut There is one senior high school,

Lycée René Cassin-Gonesse In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

Notable people

Philip Augustus Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), also known as Philip Augustus (), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: ''rex Francorum''), but from 1190 onward, Philip became the firs ...

, King of France born in Gonesse 21 August 1165. * Simon Abkarian, French-Armenian actor * Ernest Broquet, former mayor of Gonesse and recipient of the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

* Woyo Coulibaly, footballer * Axel Disasi, footballer * Annabelle Euranie, judoka * Mohamed Fofana, footballer * Franck Julienne, footballer * Aboubakar Kamara, footballer * Grejohn Kyei, footballer * Louis Labeyrie, basketball player * Cedric Moukouri, footballer * Alice Nayo, basketball player * Thierry Rupert, basketball player * Dylan Saint-Louis, footballer * Halifa Soule, footballer * Warren Tchimbembe, footballer

Twinning with Leonessa

Gonesse has been twinned with the town of Leonessa in

Rieti Rieti (; , Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina region. T ...

, Italy, since 1981.Jumelage et partenariats
. ''Ville-gonesse.fr''. Retrieved 11 July 2011.

References

External links

Official website
*
Association of Mayors of the Val d'Oise
{{Authority control Communes of Val-d'Oise