Yvelines
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| Yvelines | |
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| Coat of arms of the Yvelines department | |
| Location | |
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| Administration | |
| Department number: | 78 |
| Region: | Île-de-France |
| Prefecture: | Versailles |
| Subprefectures: | Mantes-la-Jolie Rambouillet Saint-Germain- en-Laye |
| Arrondissements: | 4 |
| Cantons: | 39 |
| Communes: | 262 |
| President of the General Council: | Pierre Bédier |
| Statistics | |
| Population | Ranked 8th |
| -Jan.1, 2004 estimate -March 8, 1999 census |
1,390,170 1,354,304 |
| Population density: | 609/km² |
| Land area¹: | 2,284 km² |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km². | |
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Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.
Contents |
[edit] History
Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on January 1, 1968 in accordance with a law passed on January 10, 1964 and a décret d'application (a decree specifying how a law should be enforced) from February 26, 1965.
It gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969.
[edit] Geography
Yvelines is bordered by the departments of Val-d'Oise on the north, Hauts-de-Seine on the east, Essonne on the southeast, Eure-et-Loir on the southwest, and Eure on the west.
The eastern part of the department, as well as its northern part along the Seine, are part of the Paris metropolitan area, but the rest of the department is rural, much of it covered by the Rambouillet Forest.
Besides Versailles (the prefecture) and the subprefectures, important cities include Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Noisy le Roi, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Poissy, Les Mureaux, Houilles, Plaisir, Sartrouville, and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Two regional national parks can be found in Yvelines: the parc de la Haute Vallée de Chevreuse and part of the parc du Vexin Français.
Yvelines is home to one of France's best known golf courses, La Tuilerie-Bignon, in the village of Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche.
See also Map of Yvelines.
[edit] Demographics
In French, a man from Yvelines is called Yvelinois (plural Yvelinois); a woman is Yvelinoise (plural Yvelinoises).
[edit] Tourism
[edit] Palaces and Châteaux
- Palace of Versailles
- Château of Breteuil
- Château of Dampierre
- Château of Maisons-Lafitte
- Château of Rambouillet
- Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
- Château of Thoiry
- Château of Vaux-sur-Seine
[edit] Museums
- Museum of National Antiques (Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
- Museum of River and Canal Craft (Conflans-Sainte-Honorine)
- Horse-drawn Coach Museum (Versailles)
- Toy Museum (Poissy)
- Sheep Museum (Rambouillet)
- Cloth Museum of Jouy (Jouy-en-Josas)
- National Barn Museum of Port-Royal (Magny-les-Hameaux)
- International Museum of Naive Art
[edit] Artist's and Writer's Houses
- André Derain's house (Chambourcy)
- Elsa Triolet-Aragon's house (Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines)
- Émile Zola's house (Médan)
- Maurice Ravel's house/museum (Montfort-l'Amaury)
- Ivan Turgenev House (Bougival)
- Alexandre Dumas, père's Château de Monte-Cristo (Port-Marly)
- Jean-Claude Richard's family estate (Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche)
[edit] Parks and Gardens
- Chèvreloup Arboretum (Rocquencourt)
- Marly Estate (Marly-le-Roi)
- Vaux sur Seine Castle Garden (Vaux sur Seine)
- The King's Vegetable Garden (Versailles)
[edit] Politics of Yvelines
[edit] Senators from Yvelines
- About Nicolas (Centrist Union)
- Bellanger Jacques (Socialist Party)
- Braye Dominique (UMP)
- Gournac Alain (UMP)
- Larcher Gérard (UMP)
[edit] See also
- Cantons of the Yvelines department
- Communes of the Yvelines department
- Arrondissements of the Yvelines department
[edit] External links
- (French) Prefecture of Yvelines
- (French) General council of Yvelines
