Villeneuve-d'Ascq

Villeneuve-d'Ascq
Villeneuve-d'Ascq
	Château de Flers
	Coat of arms
	Location of Villeneuve-d'Ascq
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Nord
Arrondissement	Lille
Canton	Villeneuve-d'Ascq
Intercommunality	Lille Métropole
Government
• Mayor (2008–14)	Gérard Caudron
Area 1	22.66 km2 (8.75 sq mi)
Population (2010)	63,572
• Density	2,800/km2 (7,300/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	59009 /59491, 59493, 59650
Elevation	19–46 m (62–151 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Villeneuve-d'Ascq (pronounced [vil.nœv.dask]) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Urban Community of Lille Métropole and the largest in area (27.46 km²) after Lille; it is also one of the main cities of the Hauts-de-France region.

Built up owing to the merger between Ascq, Annappes and Flers-lez-Lille communes, the new town is the cradle of the first automatic metro system of the world (VAL).

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is nicknamed the 'green technopole' thanks to the implantation of many researchers - the campus of Lille University of Science and Technology, Charles de Gaulle University – Lille III and many graduate engineering school - and companies in a pleasant living environment. Owing to its activity centres, its Haute Borne European scientific park and two shopping malls, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is one of the main economic spots of the Hauts-de-France region; multinational corporations such as Bonduelle, Cofidis and Decathlon have their head office there.

Outside its academic, scientific and business facilities, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is mostly known because of its sporting events – two stadiums (Stade Pierre-Mauroy and Stadium Lille Métropole) are located there and some of its sport teams are playing in the top division; its museums – the most famous is the one of modern, contemporary and outsider art (the LaM); its green ways and its medical facilities for disabled people.

Name

Its name means "new city of Ascq" in French and is derived from the Flemish word for "ash". The name of the city is generally written without the customary hyphen.

Geography

The city counts approximately 10 km² (3.9 sq mi) of greenspace, lakes, forests and arable lands. It is located between Lille and Roubaix, at the crossroads of the principal freeways towards Paris, Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels.

History

The roots of the city can be traced back to Celtic Gaul, and are anchored in two feudal mounds, a Gallo-Roman site and a Carolingian one.

Its site was selected in the 1960s to accommodate the new town of Lille-Est, which was to channel the development of the agglomeration. The commune of Villeneuve-d'Ascq was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the communes of Ascq, Annappes and Flers.^[1] Its name evokes at the same time the new city and the memory of Ascq, martyr city of 1 April 1944, date on which the Nazis massacred 86 men, see the Ascq massacre.

The city's merger with Lille was contentious and failed twice (1972 and 1976).

Economy

Businesses and public organizations

Different kinds of businesses have their headquarters in Villeneuve d'Ascq because of the availability of land, the presence of researchers (in particular in the Cité Scientifique and Haute Borne) and the proximity to Benelux and Paris. Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts notably head office of the food processing company Bonduelle, financial services providers Cofidis, sporting good chain store Decathlon, chocolate manufacture Bouquet d'Or, disposable dishes Tifany Industrie, information security company Netasq, restaurant chains Flunch, Les 3 Brasseurs, Pizza Paï.

Furthermore, Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts Europe - Middle East - Africa head office of information technology consulting company SoftThinks and European head office and R&D center of Canadian frozen foods company McCain Foods. It is home to the central buying service of international retail group Auchan, a R&D center of multinational agri-processor Tate & Lyle, and a data processing center of American company Xerox.

Villeneuve d'Ascq also hosts numerous administration and public organizations offices. The Northern headquarters of French national meteorological service Météo-France, large barracks of the National Gendarmerie (450 gendarmes and their family), the Northern headquarters of French national information and traffic center (Centre régional d'information et de circulation routière). Since 1998, there are large offices of the mobile network operator and Internet service provider Orange, along with the information computing center of Électricité de France for the Northern and Western France region.

From 1984 to 1994 Villeneuve d'Ascq housed a Groupe Bull factory that developed, manufactured and marketed desktops personal computers; the place is currently used by offices of Decathlon Group. There was also a Rhône-Poulenc chemical factory, now housing offices of mail order company 3 Suisses.

Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts the Northern head office of Textile and Clothing French Institute (IFTH) which assist industry for their technological and economical development. Finally, 2000 businesses are implanted in the city.

Shops and trade

Two huge shopping centers are located in the technopole. Centre commercial V2, founded in 1977, which, when created, was the largest shopping center north to Paris and, As of 2004^[update], it is the largest in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area. A new one opened in 2009. Heron Parc, a 13,000 m² (139,931 sq ft) shopping center located besides Centre commercial V2, hosts numerous stores of Groupe Auchan and a 12 auditoriums movie theater.

Education and science

Villeneuve d'Ascq is the first academic pole of the metropolitan area. Numerous academic and scientific facilities are located there (around 42,000 students and 2,500 researchers).

The city hosts two main university campuses. They are science and technology university Université Lille 1, most regional scientific academic center, and most national acandemic place for continuing education, and humanities taught university Charles de Gaulle University – Lille III. Those two campuses count a half of Université Lille Nord de France students.

Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts also a University Institute for Technology (IUT A), the school in architecture École nationale supérieure d'architecture et de paysage de Lille, along with five graduate schools : École centrale de Lille, École nationale supérieure de chimie de Lille, Polytech'Lille (formerly EUDIL), TELECOM Lille 1 (formerly ENIC), École supérieure des techniques industrielles et des textiles (ESTIT).

200 public and private laboratories whose 31 of them members of French National Centre for Scientific Research are located in the technopole. Some main research institute are situated in Villeneuve d'Ascq, for example IEMN (Institut d'électronique de microélectronique et de nanotechnologie), INRIA Lille (National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control), IFSTTAR (Institut national de recherche sur les transports et leur sécurité), INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), the veterinary laboratory of the Nord department, l'IRIS (Institut de recherche de l'industrie sucrière), ITF-Nord (Institut textile de France).

At last but not least, the technopole hosts the European scientific park Haute Borne, 150 hectare next to Université Lille 1.

Administration

Having succeeded Gérard Caudron as mayor from 1977 to 2001, Jean-Michel Stievenard and his team wish to maintain balances the environnement and the economic development, the greenery and technology, the daily wellbeing and the great projects, the social one and quality, opening on the its internal comfort and rest of the world, its finance and high degree of public utility. The mayors of Villeneuve-d'Ascq since 1977 have been members of the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste).In 2008, the local elections brought back to the city council Gerard Caudron as mayor.

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is the seat of the canton of Villeneuve-d'Ascq.

Transportation

As a part of the Urban Community of Lille Métropole, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is connected to Lille city centre by a VAL, a type of fully automatic (driverless) light rubber-tired metro. The VAL metro line runs through Villeneuve-d'Ascq from Quatre-Cantons and Cité Scientifique stations and drives up to Lille historical city centre and railways stations in about ten minutes.

In fact, while the acronym VAL now officially stands for Véhicule Automatique Léger (automatic light vehicle), it was originally for Villeneuve-d'Ascq à Lille (meaning Villeneuve-d'Ascq to Lille), the route of the first line to be projected, and inaugurated on 25 April 1983. The Villeneuve d'Ascq metro station is under the Place Salvador Allende (Salvadore Allende Square) and a shopping centre which includes Auchan as one of its main tenants.

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is also served by the train station Gare d'Ascq, which offers connections to Lille, Orchies and Tournai and Liège in Belgium.

Sport

Honours and statistics

The city got many awards for its sport activity. In 1994, the newspaper L'Equipe ranked Villeneuve d'Ascq in the 5 most sportive cities in France. In 1996, Villeneuve d'Ascq was elected the 'most sportive city of France', and in 1999, 'the most disabled sportive city'. It is a logical result because the city invests a lot in sport.

In 2009, 21,700 inhabitants had a sport licence in a sport club of Villeneuve d'Ascq (one third of the global population of the city) ; the city hosts 158 different sport associations, 58 different sports and 14% city operating budget is dedicated to sport.

The city has 10.99 hectares of soccer and rugby fields, 5,010 m² (53,927 sq ft) of track and field facilities and 30 km (19 mi) of hiking trails.

Facilities

Villeneuve d'Ascq has two swimming pools ('piscine du Triolo' and 'centre nautique Babylone') both equipped with a 50m long water slide, an outside grass area, saunas and a training gym.

The city hosts two major stadiums, Stadium Lille Métropole (21 650 seats) and Stade Pierre-Mauroy (50 186 seats).

Villeneuve d'Ascq have 16 soccer fields, 2 rugby fields (stadium E. Théry, Tradition street), 17 municipal gymnasiums plus 8 academic gymnasiums (E.S.U.M ), a sport complex called 'Palacium' (Pont de Bois avenue) and a gymnasium (salle d'Agrees, Breughel street) decicated to gymnastic.

The city hosts a sailing base, two shooting galleries, a bow and arrow gallery, two golf courses, 12 tennis courts, two athletism facities (Parmentier street and Lieutenant Colpin street).

Finally, we can find in Villeneuve d'Ascq two dojos, a big wall for wall-climbing (salle Tamise), a bourloire in Ascq, a boulodrome in Residence and a bowling in Hôtel de Ville.

Sporting events and teams

Football (soccer)

Villeneuve d'Ascq is home to several football teams which plays in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais football league, in Flandre district: US Ascq (promotion d'honneur), Villeneuve d'Ascq Métropole (promotion d'honneur) and Flers OS Villeneuve d'Ascq (1ère division de district).

The Stadium Nord hosted two international exhibition games: France - Tunisia in 1978 and France - Armenia in 1996. The Stadium Nord is the official stadium of the Lille Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole team (Ligue 1) since the 2004-2005 season, and also the official stadium of the Entente Sportive de Wasquehal team since 1997-1998 season (formerly Ligue 2, today CFA 2). In 1997, Stadium Nord was the home stadium of the Royal Excelsior Mouscron for the UEFA Europa League. The stadium receive the UEFA Europa League matches of Lille Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole, so prestigious clubs such as Fenerbahçe SK, FC Sévilla, Valencia CF or Liverpool FC came to Villeneuve d'Ascq.

In 2010, the Fédération française de football organised in Stadium Nord the Festifoot féminin, an event with 500 feminine soccer player footballeuses. The France women's national football team were there and also some women's international footballers.

In May, 2010 Stade Pierre-Mauroy was selected by the Fédération française de football (FFF) to host matches in the UEFA Euro 2016, hosted by France.

Rugby

Villeneuve d'Ascq is home to a rugby union team, Lille Métropole Rugby Club Villeneuvois (ex-Rugby Club Villeneuve d'Ascq), whose senior women's team takes part in France women's rugby union championship. The women's team is in Division 1 since 1999 and in Elite since his victory ath the Challenge Armelle Auclair in 2006.

The Stadium Nord receive the Quarter-final of Rugby World cup in 1991 New Zealand vs. Canada (36 000 spectators). It also receive the semi-final of European Rugby Cup 2000-2001 Stade français vs. Munster. In 2005, Stadium Nord receive matches from the under 17 y.o. rugby tournament.

The Stadium Nord receive frequently exhibition matches of the France rugby A team.

Track and field

The Stadium Nord hosts every year since 1988 an international meeting of track and field (formerly called meeting open Gaz de France, then Open du Nord and now meeting d'athlétisme Lille Métropole). The meeting is part of the national athletism league since 2007.

In Stadium Nord took place the Track and field European Cup in 1995 and the Disabled Track and field World Cup in 2002.

Other sports

Villeneuve d'Ascq has a famous basketball club, ESB Villeneuve-d'Ascq which plays in France Women's Basket Ligua.

The city has also an american football club, Vikings de Villeneuve d'Ascq (Division 2) and an handball club, Hand Ball Club Villeneuve d'Ascq (HBCV) (Division 2).

The cycling tournament Tour de France arrived in Villeneuve d'Ascq in 1988.^{[citation needed]} Sportsmen who came from Villeneuve d'Ascq clubs include tennis players Sarah Pitkowski and Nathalie Dechy.

Culture

The city keeps of its past of many vestiges, sites and equipment.

Villeneuve-d'Ascq possesses a famous museum, the Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art (LaM). One can visit the forum of sciences François Mitterrand, the rebuildings of a Gaulois village to the archeological park Asnapio.

International relations

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is twinned with:

Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom Tournai, Hainaut, Belgium Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany	Racibórz, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland La Possession, Réunion, France.^[2] Gatineau, Québec, Canada Iaşi, Romania