SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES
Community of agglomeration of Yvelines (Élancourt, Trappes, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, Guyancourt, Voisins-le-Bretonneux, Magny-les-Hameaux, La Verrière, Plaisir, Bois-d'Arcy, Coignières, Maurepas, les Clayes-sous-Bois, Villepreux).
Stage town for the 2nd time.
Population: 228,000
Specialities: craft beers. Paris-Brest.
Personalities: Blaise Pascal, Jean Racine (writers, Port Royal), Erich von Stroheim, Omar Sy, Djamel Debbouze, Jean Dujardin, Guillaume Canet (actors), Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira (football), Jacques Perret (writer). Hicham Arazi (tennis).
Sport: Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, headquarters of the French Cycling Federation. National golf course at Guyancourt.
Events: track cycling and BMX Olympic Games 2024. French Open golf tournament. Ryder Cup.
Economy: the second-largest economic centre in western Paris. It is located in the Plateau de Saclay area, which is designed to rival the world's leading technology parks. In 2014, the French government created an operation of national interest: 7,302 companies, 99,793 jobs. ANSYS France (calculation and digital simulation software), Orano (Montigny-le-Bretonneux), Bouygues Construction (Guyancourt); Thales (Elancourt); Airbus Defence and Space (military aircraft, drones, etc.., Elancourt); Safran group, aeronautics (Magny-les-Hameaux and Plaisir); Sodexo France (Guyancourt); McDonald's France (head office in Guyancourt); Malakoff Humanis (Guyancourt); Europcar (world headquarters in Voisins-le-Bretonneux); Hertz SA (head office in Montigny-le-Bx); Reebok (Voisins-le-Bretonneux); Amazon (Guyancourt). Technocentre Renault (Guyancourt); BMW Group France (Montigny-le-Bretonneux); Fiat Auto France (Trappes); Nissan France SA (Trappes); Valeo (La Verrière); Mercedes-Benz France (Montigny-le-Bretonneux).
Festivals: Banlieues'arts, Fête du conte, Chantiers d'art et de scène, Poésyvelines (November). Fééries de Trappes (December). La Tour turns on the watts (Voisins-le-Bretonneux). Escales d'ailleurs (Plaisir). Les Clayecibels (Clayes-sous-Bois).
Websites / FB / Twitter: www.saint-quentin-en-yvelines.fr / https://www.yvelines-infos.fr/ / www.sqy.fr / montigny78.fr
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES AND CYCLING
This final stage will have a strong Olympic flavour, as Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines has had a velodrome since 2014, which is the headquarters of the French Cycling Federation and will host the track events and BMX at the 2024 Olympic Games. The track has already hosted the world championships twice, in 2015 and 2022. These two editions have crowned riders such as Stefan Küng, Bryan Coquard and Fernando Gaviria (2015), Ethan Hayter, Ethan Vernon, etc. (2022), who have subsequently expressed or will express their talent on the roads of the Tour de France. The Tour also made a stopover in the Yvelines conurbation in 1986, for a team time trial won by Laurent Fignon's Super-U team, which gave its name to the street where the velodrome is located. Paris-Nice has also visited towns attached to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, such as Maurepas in 2015, where Michal Kwiatkowski won the prologue, Bois d'Arcy in 2017, where Arnaud Démare won, and Plaisir in 2020, where Maximilian Schachmann won. Among the riders from the communes that make up Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines was Jean Maréchal, who won Paris-Tours in 1930 and was relegated after his victory in Paris-Roubaix that same year. "Le Crack" took part in the 1931 Tour before leading the Île de France team in 1951. Michel Pelchat, French cyclo-cross champion in 1964 and 1966, and Maurice Perrin, Olympic tandem champion in 1932, were also from Plaisir.
SIGHTS
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome (see above):
Upper-Valley of Chevreuse Regional Nature Park The Regional Nature Park, created in 1985, is located around twenty kilometres south-west of Paris, mainly in the Yvelines department, with a small part in Essonne. Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines is only partly part of the park, particularly Magny-les-Hameaux and Coignières. Many footpaths, including long-distance footpaths, criss-cross the Park, allowing visitors to explore the sites on foot. These include the Jean Racine trail, which links Chevreuse to the Abbey of Port-Royal des Champs in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Château de la Madeleine, a medieval fortress built on the heights of the village of Chevreuse, is home to the Maison du Parc, where you can obtain all the information you need to visit the park. This modern architectural space has been integrated into the interior of the château. Some of the Park's staff are also based at the Domaine d'Ors in Châteaufort.
In Guyancourt:
National Golf Course
Created: 1990.
History: commissioned by the President of the French Golf Federation (FFG) in the 1980s, the golf course was designed and developed by Hubert Chesneau, on land located between the communes of Guyancourt and Magny-les-Hameaux. The plans were submitted in 1986 and the work lasted from 1987 to 1990.
Characteristics: it comprises two 18-hole courses: the Albatros, which hosts top-level competitions, and the Eagle for golfers of all levels, as well as a 9-hole 'school' course, l'Oiselet. The National Golf Course, which regularly organises the Open de France, hosted the Ryder Cup in 2018 and will be the venue for the golf competitions at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Bouviers Battery
Built: 1879
History: this former military battery was built in 1879 and occupied by the army until 1932. From 1933, it was leased to the Hispano-Suiza company, which used it as a factory and built industrial buildings on its outskirts. Hispano-Suiza left the site in 1993. Purchased by the Ministry of Defence in 1999, the battery was converted into a cultural music facility in 2006. On the five hectares of land around the battery, office buildings were constructed in 2009 and a municipal music school opened its doors to the public in September 2010.
Characteristics: the main building is a remarkable example of late 19th-century military architecture. The complex is made up of a juxtaposition of single-oriented longitudinal cells on the north-east facade, with architectonic vaults, lined at the rear by a vast volume with no openings whatsoever. The materials used are limestone, millstone and brick.
Current use: amplified music venue, rehearsal studios and restaurant.
In Magny-les-Hameaux :
National Museum of Port-Royal-des-Champs
Museum opening: 1962
History: the "Petites écoles" building and its 19th-century extension were purchased by the French state in 1952. The museum's organisation was entrusted to Bernard Dorival in 1953. It was inaugurated onJune 14, 1962 in the presence of André Malraux, Secretary of State for Cultural Affairs. The Granges farm was bought by the state in 1983. The site of the abbey ruins, which had housed a private museum since the early 1840s, was donated to the State by the Société de Port-Royal in 2004.
Characteristics: the National Museum of Port Royal des Champs houses a rich collection of engravings, old books, portraits and works that bear witness to the history and drama of conscience that took place in the abbey a few centuries ago. It includes paintings by Philippe de Champaigne and Jean Restout. The tour also includes works written in Port-Royal in the 17th century and engravings from the 17th and 18th centuries. A number of Jansenist devotional objects are also on display. A section devoted to the 18th-century convulsion movement, thanks to government acquisitions and a large deposit from the Société de Port-Royal, includes drawings by Jean Restout.
In Trappes:
Les Dents de scie
Construction: 1926 to 1931.
History: the Dents de Scie workers' housing estate was designed by architect Henry Gutton and his son André. The forty detached houses were built close to Trappes station, as they were intended for railway workers. The homes are detached, each comprising a 66-m2 four-bedroom on a semi-buried basement, with a private garden accessible from the inside. Thanks to the efforts of local residents and the local authority, the buildings were rehabilitated instead of being demolished, as originally planned, and have now been listed.
Characteristics: the architects were inspired by German projects that applied the theories of minimum housing and the hygiene movement. The aim was to provide residents with modern comforts in functional spaces. Each pavilion has a garden, water points and laundry facilities. The bungalows are set at a 45° angle along a public road, hence the name of the housing estate. The buildings were initially made of brick but were clad in plaster in 1938. The Dents de scie housing estate incorporates a number of the architectural principles set out by Le Corbusier in his Modern Art work: flat roof, stilts, free facade with no beams or pillars.
Listed as: Historical Monument since 1992. 20th century heritage.
In Élancourt :
Commandery of la Villedieu
Founded: 1181
History: the first milestone on the road from Chartres to Santiago de Compostela, the Commandery was founded by the Knights Templar between 1150 and 1181. When the order was dissolved in 1312, all the property at Villedieu-Maurepas came under the command of the Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. All that remains of the original buildings is the millstone chapel, which was listed in 1926.
Listed as: Historical Monument since 1926.
France Miniature
A miniature park in Élancourt, opened in 1991. The park features 117 French monuments and sites, reproduced in miniature on a scale of 1:30, over a five-hectare area laid out in the shape of a map of France, with basins at the locations of the seas and oceans that border France, as well as the island of Corsica. The estate is criss-crossed by a number of miniature railways, on which run trains made up of models reproducing SNCF equipment (TGV, Corail trains, etc.). Since 2004, a self-service attractions area has been reserved for young children.
In Plaisir:
Château de Plaisir
Construction: 17th and 18th centuries.
Style: classic.
History: Château de Plaisir is a typical 17th-century building. When it was built, it belonged to the Le Tellier family, who kept it for a century. Around 1720, the estate passed into the hands of the Goullet-de Rugy family and then, by descent, to the Saint-Sauveur family until the French Revolution. The nineteenth and most of the twentieth centuries saw a succession of very different owners: local notables, members of the professions, farmers, etc. It was bought by the town council in 1976.
Characteristics: originally, the building consisted only of the central part, corresponding to the terrace in front of it. Its architecture and interior features bear witness to the Louis XIII style. The two lower wings and the agricultural outbuildings were added in the 18th century.
Current use: it houses the media library, the miusic academy, the Robert Manuel Theatre and several exhibition and function rooms.
Listed as: Historical Monument since 1961.
DRINK:
The Saint Q
Axel Courson, the brewery's founder, started brewing beer in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, where he has lived for over 25 years. After several vintages and a brewing course in Douai, the production process no longer held any secrets for him. He left his former life as a consultant and set off with a single goal in mind: Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines would have its own beer! Located in Guyancourt, 30 km from Paris in the Yvelines department, the brewery opened its doors in March 2014. It produces beers that respect the oldest brewing traditions. Unfiltered and unpasteurised, Saint-Q beers are authentic craft beers. They are long-keeping beers with double fermentation (in the vats and in the bottles). The production cycle lasts 5 to 6 weeks to achieve the right maturation.
