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Neuilly-sur-Seine
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Neuilly-sur-Seine ( in French) is a commune bordering the western limit of the city of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.
Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is comprised of mostly wealthy, select residential neighbourhoods, as well as the headquarters of many corporations.
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Encyclopedia
Neuilly-sur-Seine ( in French) is a commune bordering the western limit of the city of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.
Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is comprised of mostly wealthy, select residential neighbourhoods, as well as the headquarters of many corporations. It is often lumped together with some areas of the neighbouring 16th arrondissement of Paris as Auteuil-Neuilly-Passy, a compendium of "bourgeois" (i.e., upscale) neighbourhoods.
The origins of Neuilly-sur-Seine's name are quite confused and controversial. Originally, Neuilly was a small hamlet under the jurisdiction of Villiers, a larger settlement mentioned in medieval sources as early as 832 and now absorbed by the commune of Levallois-Perret. It was not until 1222 that the little settlement of Neuilly, established on the banks of the Seine, was mentioned for the first time in a charter of the Abbey of Saint-Denis: the name was recorded in Medieval Latin as Portus de Lulliaco, meaning "Port of Lulliacum". In 1224 another charter of Saint-Denis recorded the name as Lugniacum. In a sales contract dated 1266 the name was also recorded as Luingni.
In 1316, however, in a ruling of the parlement of Paris, the name was recorded as Nully, quite a different name from those recorded before. In a document dated 1376 the name was again recorded as Nulliacum (the Medieval Latin version of Nully). Then in the following centuries the name recorded alternated between Luny and Nully, and it is only after 1648 that the name was definitely set as Nully, later spelt Neuilly.
Various explanations and etymologies have been proposed to explain these discrepancies in the names of Neuilly recorded over the centuries. It seems most plausible to consider that the original name of Neuilly was Lulliacum or Lugniacum, and that it was only later corrupted into Nulliacum / Nully. Some interpret Lulliacum or Lugniacum as meaning "estate of Lullius (or Lunius)", probably a Gallo-Roman landowner. This interpretation is based on the many placenames of France made up of the names of Gallo-Roman landowners and suffixed with the traditional placename suffix "-acum". However, other researchers object that it is unlikely that Neuilly owes its name to a Gallo-Roman patronym, because during the Roman occupation of Gaul the area of Neuilly was inside the large Forest of Rouvray, of which the Bois de Boulogne is all that remains today, and was probably not settled yet.
These researchers contend that it is only after the fall of the Roman Empire and the Germanic invasions that the area of Neuilly was deforested and settled. Thus, they think that the name Lulliacum or Lugniacum comes from the ancient Germanic word lund meaning "forest", akin to Old Norse lundr meaning "grove", to which the placename suffix "-acum" was added. The Old Norse word lundr has indeed left many placenames across Europe, such as the city of Lund in Sweden, the Forest of the Londe in Normandy, or the many English placenames containing "lound", "lownde", or "lund" in their name, or ending in "-land". However, this interesting theory fails to explain why the "d" of lund is missing in Lulliacum or Lugniacum.
Concerning the discrepancy in names over the centuries, the most probable explanation is that the original name Lulliacum or Lugniacum was later corrupted into Nulliacum / Nully by inversion of the consonants, perhaps under the influence of an old Celtic word meaning "swampy land, boggy land" (as was the land around Neuilly-sur-Seine in ancient times) which is found in the name of many French places anciently covered with water, such as Noue, Noë, Nouan, Nohant, etc. Or perhaps the consonants were simply inverted under the influence of the many settlements of France called Neuilly (a frequent placename whose etymology is completely different from the special case of Neuilly-sur-Seine).
Until the French Revolution, the settlement was often referred to as Port-Neuilly, but at the creation of French communes in 1790 the "Port" was dropped and the newly born commune was named simply Neuilly.
On 2 May 1897, the commune name officially became Neuilly-sur-Seine (meaning "Neuilly upon Seine"), in order to distinguish it from the many communes of France also called Neuilly. However, most people continue to refer to Neuilly-sur-Seine as simply "Neuilly". Inhabitants are called Neuilléens.
It is the site of the Château de Neuilly, an important royal residence during the July Monarchy.
On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighboring communes. On that occasion, a part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was annexed by the city of Paris, and forms now the neighborhood of Ternes, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.
On 11 January 1867, part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was detached and merged with a part of the territory of Clichy to create the commune of Levallois-Perret.
In 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly was signed with Bulgaria in Neuilly-sur-Seine to conclude its role in World War I.
In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne, which was hitherto divided between the communes of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Boulogne-Billancourt, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris.
Mayors
- Achille Peretti (1947–1983)
- Nicolas Sarkozy, current French president (1983–2002)
- Louis-Charles Bary (2002-2008)
- Jean-Christophe Fromantin (since 2008)
Transport
Neuilly-sur-Seine is served by three stations on Paris Métro Line 1: Porte Maillot (with a direct access to RER line C), Les Sablons and Pont de Neuilly.
RATP Bus lines : 43, 73, 82, 93, 163, 164, 174
Miscellaneous
- Neuilly-sur-Seine is home to Mireille Mathieu,Gérard Depardieu, the Rollins family, and Jean Reno, among others.
- Neuilly-sur-Seine is the home of the NATO Research and Technology Organization (RTO).
- Neuilly-sur-Seine is the location of the American Hospital of Paris.
- Bette Davis died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1989, Wassily Kandinsky in 1944, and Hugues Claude Pissarro was born there in 1935.
- Puerto Rican independence leader Ramón Emeterio Betances died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1898.
- Liliane Bettencourt remains a resident.
- Two leading actors of the French film The Grand Illusion died here.
- Pierre Fresnay, who portrayed Capt. de Boeldieu, died on 9 January 1975, of respiratory problems.
- Less than two years later, on 15 November 1976, Jean Gabin, who portrayed de Boeldieu's pilot Lt. Maréchal, died of a heart attack.
- Louis Antoine Jullien (1812-1860), one of the most flamboyant conductors and a composer of light music (and one of the founders of the promenade concerts) spent his last days in an asylum in Neuilly, where he died.
- Guitarist Kevin Eubanks spent his teenage years in the area.
Twin towns
Notable people
- Florent Schmitt (1870-1958), French composer
- Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958), winner of the Nobel prize for Literature in 1937, was born in Neuilly-sur Seine
- Michel Berger (1947-1992), musician
- André Action Diakité Jackson (1964-), Diamantaire
- Carole Bouquet (1957-), actress and model
- Athina Roussel (1985-), show jumper, the only surviving descendant of the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis
- Mathieu Amalric (1965-), actor and film director
- John Meyendorff (1926-1992), baron, protopresbiter of Orthodox Church In America, theologian, Church historian
- Wassily Kandinsky (-1944), artist
- Marcel Duchamp (-1968), artist
- Jacques Prévert (4 February 1900-11 April 1977), surrealist and symbolist poet who wrote the screenplay for the film Les Enfants du Paradis
- Jean-Paul Belmondo (9 April, 1933), actor
External links
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