Villeneuve d'Ascq

French commune
nomcommune=Villeneuve d'Ascq
région=Nord-Pas-de-Calais
département=Nord| arrondissement=Lille
canton=Chief town of 2 cantons
insee=59009 |cp=59491, 59493, 59650
maire=Jean-Michel Stievenard
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Lille Métropole
longitude=3.145
latitude=50.623334
alt moy=
alt mini=19 m
alt maxi=46 m
hectares=2,266
km²=22.66
sans=62,400
date-sans=2004
dens=2,754
date-dens=2004

Villeneuve d'Ascq is a French "commune", located between Lille and Roubaix, at the crossroads of the principal freeways towards Paris, Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. Its name means "New city of Ascq" in French and is derived from the Dutch word for "ash". It is one of the principal cities of the communauté urbaine Lille Métropole.

Demography

Villeneuve d'Ascq counts more than 60,000 inhabitants and attracts 50,000 students. The median age of the population is 29 years.

Geography

The city counts approximately 10 km² of greenspace, lakes, forests and arable lands.

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 three communes (Ascq, Annappes and Flers). Its name evokes at the same time the new city and the memory of Ascq, martyr city of April 1, 1944, date on which the Nazis massacred 86 men.

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

Chronology:

* April 11, 1969 : creation of the publicly owned establishment of installation of Lille-Est (EPALE)
* February 25, 1970: decree of creation of the commune of Villeneuve d'Ascq (26,178 inhabitants according to the census of 1968)
* December 31, 1983: dissolution of the EPALE, the city then reached 60,000 inhabitants.
* 1986: creation of Villeneuve d'Ascq Technopole (VAT, pronounced veh-ah-teh).

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).

Villeneuve d'Ascq is divided into two cantons:
* Villeneuve d'Ascq-Nord (North) counts 31,811 inhabitants;
* Villeneuve d'Ascq-Sud (South) counts 33,231 inhabitants.

Landmarks

The city keeps of its past of many vestiges, sites and equipment. One can visit a museum of modern art there, the forum of sciences François Mitterrand, the rebuildings of a Gaulois village to the park Archéologique ASNAPIO.

The town's stadium Stadium Lille Metropole is the temporary home of Lille's Soccer club the Lille Olympique Sporting Club which is one of the major teams in the French Soccer league, has won 8 major national trophies and now regularly features in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup.

Education and research

Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts:
* many research laboratories
* a large number of industries, technology companies and service providers
* two university campuses:
** Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille I (USTL) in 'Cité Scientifique' campus
** Université de Lille III at 'Pont de Bois' campus.
* Graduate schools and sciences institutes in 'Cité Scientifique' campus, including:
** École Centrale de Lille
**
**

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 April 25, 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.

Twin towns

Villeneuve d'Ascq is twinned with:
* Stirling, Scotland
* Tournai, Belgium
* Chaidari, Greece
* Leverkusen, Germany
* La Possession, Réunion
* flagicon|Canada Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
* Iaşi, Romania

External links

* [http://www.mairie-villeneuvedascq.fr/ Villeneuve d'Ascq official website]
* [http://www.nordnet.fr/mam/ Museum of modern art]
* [http://www.forum-des-sciences.tm.fr/ Forum des sciences (Centre François Mitterrand)]
* [http://asso.nordnet.fr/ot-villeneuvedascq/s Office of tourism]