Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne

For other places with the same name, see Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (disambiguation).

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (often abbreviated to SGdB^[3]) is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 23.5 km (14.6 miles) from the center of Paris, in the arrondissement of Palaiseau, Essonne department, Île-de-France.

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois
Commune
Town Hall
Coat of arms
Location (in red) within Paris inner and outer suburbs
Location of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Show map of France Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Show map of Île-de-France (region)
Coordinates: 48°38′13″N 2°20′25″E
Country	France
Region	Île-de-France
Department	Essonne
Arrondissement	Palaiseau
Canton	Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois
Intercommunality	CA Cœur d'Essonne
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Frédéric Petitta[1]
Area 1	9.27 km2 (3.58 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]	35,846
• Density	3,900/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	91549 /91700
Elevation	37–90 m (121–295 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

History

Inhabitants of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois are known as Génovéfains. There has been a settlement in what is now Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois since Roman times. In 1800 it was still a small settlement with around 100 inhabitants. After the armistice in 1918 the population was counted at less than 800. The boom started in the 1920s when inhabitants of Paris wanted affordable housing. This boom was in part because the railway station of Perray was built, connecting the town to Paris. The population at the moment is over 30.000 inhabitants, making it one of the larger settlements in the Essonne departement.

In 1926 the Château de la Cossonnerie^[4] was converted to a retirement home for White émigrés. It is locally known as the Maison Russe. It is still a retirement home but also a centre for Russian Culture.

Population

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 304 —     1800 280 −1.17% 1806 329 +2.72% 1821 320 −0.18% 1831 319 −0.03% 1836 290 −1.89% 1841 304 +0.95% 1846 301 −0.20% 1851 267 −2.37% 1856 296 +2.08% 1861 301 +0.34% 1866 310 +0.59% 1872 319 +0.48% 1876 402 +5.95% 1881 453 +2.42% 1886 494 +1.75% 1891 551 +2.21% 1896 681 +4.33%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 648 −0.99% 1906 732 +2.47% 1911 839 +2.77% 1921 886 +0.55% 1926 2,894 +26.71% 1931 5,567 +13.98% 1936 7,390 +5.83% 1946 10,675 +3.75% 1954 11,219 +0.62% 1962 17,660 +5.84% 1968 23,684 +5.01% 1975 31,859 +4.33% 1982 30,439 −0.65% 1990 31,286 +0.34% 1999 32,125 +0.29% 2007 34,411 +0.86% 2012 35,035 +0.36% 2017 36,207 +0.66%
Source: EHESS[5] and INSEE (1968-2017)[6]

Notable events

In 1963 Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, at more than 2 500 square meters the largest in France at the time.^[7] This store is still active.

Ilan Halimi, the young French Jew, who was kidnapped and tortured (leading to his eventual death) in 2006 by a group called the Gang of Barbarians, was found in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.^[8]

Tourism

Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois does not have an Office du Tourisme nor does the Mairie have tourist facilities. The town has set out a walking tour of the town taking in most of the important places in the town, taking in both the old and the new. Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois has a strong link with the Russian community living in France. The walk passes the Russian Necropolis, considered by some as the most important necropolis of Russian emigrants in the world.

The town offers limited cycling, horse-riding and walking facilities. There is a campsite in neighbouring Villiers-sur-Orge.

Sights

Attractions include the Donjon, a park with animals, the town greenhouse, a grotto, and a Russian Necropolis. There are two main green spaces, the Bois des Trous and a parkland which borders on the river Orge (a tributary of the Seine). There are also some small parks.

Location

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is one of the southern suburbs (banlieue) of Paris, France. It is located 23.5 km (14.6 mi) from the center of Paris and lies just north of junction 42 on the orbital Francilienne autoroute.

Transport

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois has an eponymous railway station located on the Paris–Bordeaux railway and the Transilien which in part serves RER line C to Paris.

From the railway station a number of bus lines connect the town to the region: lines CEAT (101, 102, 103, 104 and 105), Daniel Meyer (DM6A and DM17A)

Sport

See Sainte-Geneviève Sports

Gallery

• 
  Church and square
• 
  Public market
• 
  Château and Donjon
• 
  The first Carrefour hypermarket

Twin towns - sister cities

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is twinned with:^[9]

• Mikołów, Poland
• Obertshausen, Germany
• Penafiel, Portugal

See also

• Communes of the Essonne department

References

1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
2. "Populations légales 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
3. SGdB in the French Wikipedia
4. The history of la Cossonnerie in the Magazine Municipal Sainte-Geneviëve-des-Bois, No 239, 2007 Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
5. Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, EHESS (in French).
6. Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
7. (in French) Carrefour in SGdB
8. Tale of Torture and Murder Horrifies the Whole of France, Michel Gurfinkiel, The New York Sun, February 22, 2006
9. "Le jumelage". sgdb91.com (in French). Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. Retrieved 2019-11-18.

External links

• Media related to Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne at Wikimedia Commons
• (in French) Official website
• Base Mérimée: Search for heritage in the commune, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
• (in French) The UME (Union des Maires de l'Essonne) website