Yvelines

Yvelines
Department of France
From top down, left to right: prefecture building in Versailles, view of La Celle-Saint-Cloud, forest and lake in Guyancourt, marble courtyard and gardens of the Palace of Versailles
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Yvelines in France
Coordinates: 48°50′N 1°55′E / 48.833°N 1.917°E / 48.833; 1.917Coordinates: 48°50′N 1°55′E / 48.833°N 1.917°E / 48.833; 1.917
Country	France
Region	Île-de-France
Prefecture	Versailles
Subprefectures	Mantes-la-Jolie Rambouillet Saint-Germain- en-Laye
Government
• President of the Departmental Council	Pierre Bédier (LR)
Area 1
• Total	2,284 km2 (882 sq mi)
Population  (2016)
• Total	1,431,808
• Rank	9th
• Density	630/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number	78
Arrondissements	4
Cantons	21
Communes	259
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries and lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km².

Yvelines (/iːvlɪnz/, /iːvlaɪnz/; French: [ivlin] (listen)) is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2016, it had a population of 1,431,808. Its prefecture is Versailles, home to the Palace of Versailles, the principal residence of the King of France from 1682 until 1789, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Yvelines' subprefectures are Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Mantes-la-Jolie and Rambouillet.

History[]

Yvelines was created from the western part of the former department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application (a decree specifying how a law should be enforced) from 26 February 1965. It inherited Seine-et-Oise's official number of 78 since it took up the largest portion of its territory. In addition to this, it inherited Seine-et-Oise's prefecture, Versailles.

It gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969.

The departmental capital, Versailles, which grew up around Louis XIV's château, was also the French capital for more than a century under the Ancien Régime and again between 1871 and 1879 during the early years of the Third Republic. Since then the château has continued to welcome the French Parliament when it is called upon to sit in a congressional sitting (with both houses sitting together) in order to enact constitutional changes or to listen to a formal declaration by the President.^[1]

Geography[]

Situation[]

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, is part of the Paris metropolitan area, but the rest of the department is rural, much of it covered by the Forest of Rambouillet (also known as the Forest of Yveline, from which the name of the department is derived).

Besides Versailles (the prefecture) and the subprefectures of Mantes-la-Jolie, Rambouillet, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, important cities include Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Poissy, Les Mureaux, Houilles, Plaisir, Sartrouville, Chatou, Le Chesnay, and the new agglomeration community of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Two regional parks can be found in Yvelines: Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Natural Park and part of Vexin Français Park. Yvelines is home to one of France's best known golf courses, La Tuilerie-Bignon, in the village of Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche.

Largest communes[]

Demographics[]

In French, a man from the Yvelines is called Yvelinois (plural Yvelinois); a woman is Yvelinoise (plural Yvelinoises).

Population development since 1876[]

Place of birth of residents[]

Tourism[]

Palaces and châteaux[]

• Palace of Versailles
• Château de Breteuil
• Château de Dampierre
• Château de Maisons
• Château de Rambouillet
• Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
• Château of Thoiry
• Château de Villette

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
• Musee Lambinet (Versailles)

Artists' and writers' houses[]

• Maurice Denis's house, the Musée départemental Maurice Denis (Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
• André Derain's house (Chambourcy)
• Alexandre Dumas, père's Château de Monte-Cristo (Port-Marly)
• Maurice Ravel's house/museum (Montfort-l'Amaury)
• Jean-Claude Richard's family estate (Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche)
• Elsa Triolet-Aragon's house (Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines)
• Ivan Turgenev House (Bougival)
• Émile Zola's house (Médan)

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)
• Outdoor and entertainment base of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Trappes)

• 

  Palace and Gardens of Versailles

• 

  The Grand Trianon

• 

  The Hameau de la Reine

• 

  The Venus of Brassempouy from the collection of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

• 

  Lavoir of Jumeauville

Politics[]

Michel Rocard, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1988 to 1991 under President François Mitterrand, was an MP for the department in the Socialist Party.

Members of the National Assembly[]

In the 2017 legislative election, Yvelines elected the following representatives to the National Assembly:

Senators[]

In the Senate, Yvelines is represented by:

• (DVD), since 2020
• (LR), since 2017
• Gérard Larcher (LR), since 2007 (President of the Senate since 2014)
• (UDI), since 2017
• (REM), since 2017
• Sophie Primas (LR), since 2011

See also[]

• Cantons of the Yvelines department
• Communes of the Yvelines department
• Arrondissements of the Yvelines department

References[]

External links[]

• (in French) Prefecture of Yvelines
• (in French) General council of Yvelines
• (in French) History of Famous People and Yvelines