Roubaix

French commune|nomcommune=Roubaix
région=Nord-Pas-de-Calais
département=Nord
arrondissement=Lille
canton=Chief town of 4 cantons
insee=59512|cp=59100
maire=René Vandierendonck|mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Lille Métropole
Communauté urbaine
longitude= 3.17
latitude= 50.7
alt moy=32 m|alt mini=17 m|alt maxi=52 m
hectares=1,323
km²=13.23
sans=96,984
date-sans=1999|dens=7,330|date-dens=1999

Roubaix (Dutch "Robaais") is a city of northern France, in the Nord "département", located near the cities of Lille and Tourcoing and the Belgian border.

ights

Notable is La Piscine art gallery, which as the name implies, is located in the old municipal swimming pool.

port

Roubaix is the finish line for the famous Paris-Roubaix cycling classic. The cycling classic is run from Compiègne to Roubaix over 259.5km which includes almost 50km of cobblestone sections.

Births

Roubaix was the birthplace of:
*Léon Mathot (1886 - 1968) - French film actor and director
* Pierre Pflimlin (1907-2000), Christian Democratic politician who served as the last Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic
* Viviane Romance (1912-1991), actress
* Georges Delerue (1925-1992), film composer who worked on over 300 films
* Bernard Arnault (born 1949), businessman
* Étienne Chatiliez (born 1952), film director
* Maxence van der Meersch (born 1907) writer

Twin towns

Roubaix is twinned with:
* - Mönchengladbach, Germany, since 1969
* - Bradford, United Kingdom
* - Covilhã, Portugal
* - Bouïra, Algeria
* - Skopje, Macedonia
* - Prato, Italy

External links

* [http://www.mairie-roubaix.fr City council website] (in French)
* [http://www.roubaixtourism.net/ Tourist office website]
* [http://museeroubaix.free.fr/ Website of the museum]
* [http://leblog2roubaix.com/ LeBlog2Roubaix.com (videoblog and WebTv about Roubaix)]
* [http://dmoz.org/World/Fran%c3%a7ais/R%c3%a9gional/Europe/France/R%c3%a9gions/Nord-Pas-de-Calais/Nord/Villes_et_villages/Roubaix/ links DMOZ] (in French)