Joué-lès-Tours (, literally ''Joué near

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

'') is a commune in the department of

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.Centre-Val de Loire Centre-Val de Loire (; ,In isolation, ''Centre'' is pronounced . ) or Centre Region (, ), as it was known until 2015, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior ...

, central

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is the largest

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of the city of

, and is adjacent to it on the southwest.

Population

Toponymy

The name of Joué-lès-Tours appears in its form "Gaudiacus" in the 6th Century. It corresponds to a toponymic type frequently found in Christian Gaule, that gave different variants depending on the region: Joué (west of France), Jouy (center and north), Jouey (east), Gouy (

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

Picardy Picardy (; Picard language, Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former regions of France, administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained it ...

), Gaugeac, Jaujac (south). It is composed of the Christian name "Gaudius", meaning "fortunate", "blessed" (gaudia > joy, in Latin) and with the Gallo-Roman suffix -ACU, meaning "place of", "property of".

History

Joué-lès-Tours was the site of the 20 December 2014 Tours police station stabbing.

Controversy

In February 2010 the mayor, Philippe Le Breton, added the word ''

laïcité (; 'secularism') is the constitutional principle of secularism in France. Article 1 of the French Constitution is commonly interpreted as the separation of civil society and religious society. It discourages religious involvement in governmen ...

'' underneath the French national motto on the town hall's façade.Video on the inscription

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

(in French)

References

External links

Official website
Communes of Indre-et-Loire {{IndreLoire-geo-stub