Villeneuve-d'Ascq


Villeneuve-d'Ascq 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 Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area after Lille; it is also one of the main cities of the Hauts-de-France region.
Built up owing to the merger between the former communes of Ascq, Annappes and Flers-lez-Lille, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is a new town and the cradle of the first automatic metro system of the world.
Villeneuve-d'Ascq is nicknamed the 'green technopole' thanks to the implantation of many researchers — two campus of the University of Lille; many graduate engineering schools — 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 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 ; its green ways and its medical facilities for disabled people.

Name

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

Geography

The city counts approximately 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

Development on what is now Villeneuve-d'Ascq can be traced back to Celtic Gaul era, and are anchored in two feudal mounds, a Gallo-Roman site and a Carolingian one.
The area was selected in the 1960s to accommodate a new town then designated the name Lille-Est, which was to channel the growth of the agglomeration of Lille city and development of institutions based in the area. The commune of Villeneuve-d'Ascq was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the communes of Ascq, Annappes and Flers. Its name evokes at the same time the new and the old: former commune Ascq and its memory as martyr town of 1 April 1944, date on which the Nazis massacred 86 men.
The city's merger with Lille was contentious and failed twice.

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 and the proximity to both Benelux and Paris economic regions. 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, the Northern headquarters of French national information and traffic center. 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. 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 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. The indoor/roofed Centre commercial V2, founded in 1977, which, when created, was the largest shopping center north of Paris and is still the largest in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area. A new outdoor one opened in 2009, Heron Parc, a shopping center located near V2, hosting 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.

Universities and tertiary institutions

The city hosts two main campuses of the University of Lille : "Cité Scientifique" ; and "Pont de Bois". Those two campuses count a half of the Community of Universities and Institutions Lille Nord de France students.
Villeneuve d'Ascq hosts also a University Institute for Technology, 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, École des Mines-Télécom de Lille-Douai , École supérieure des techniques industrielles et des textiles.

Primary and secondary education

There are 20 public maternelles, 17 public élémentaires, and 6 public combined preschools and elementary schools. There are also five public collèges : Camille Claudel, Simone de Beauvoir, Moliere, Rimbaud, and Triolo. The two public lycées in the commune are Lycée Raymond Queneau and Lycée professionnel Dinah Derycke.
There is one combined private elementary through high school, École Saint-Adrien. There is also a private junior high school, Collège privé communautaire; and four private combined preschool and elementary schools, Notre-Dame, Saint-Pierre d'Ascq, Cardinal Liénart, and Saint-Henri.

Miscellaneous education

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, INRIA Lille, IFSTTAR, INRA, the veterinary laboratory of the Nord department, l'IRIS, ITF-Nord.
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.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 Métropole Européenne de Lille, Villeneuve-d'Ascq is connected to Lille city centre by a VAL, a type of fully automatic light rubber-tired metro.
The VAL metro line runs through Villeneuve-d'Ascq from :fr:Quatre Cantons |Quatre-Cantons and :fr:Cité Scientifique - Professeur Gabillard |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, it was originally for Villeneuve-d'Ascq à 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 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 received many awards for its sporting activities. In 1994, the newspaper L'Equipe ranked Villeneuve d'Ascq in the five 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 the sport club of Villeneuve d'Ascq ; the city hosts 158 different sport associations, 58 different sports and 14% of the city operating budget is dedicated to sport.
The city has 10.99 hectares of soccer and rugby fields, of track and field facilities and of hiking trails.

Facilities

Villeneuve d'Ascq has two swimming pools 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 and Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Villeneuve d'Ascq have 16 soccer fields, 2 rugby fields, 17 municipal gymnasiums plus 8 academic gymnasiums, a sport complex called 'Palacium' and a gymnasium dedicated to gymnastics.
The city hosts a sailing base, two shooting galleries, a bow and arrow gallery, two golf courses, 12 tennis courts, two athletics facilities.
Finally, we can find in Villeneuve d'Ascq two dojos, a big wall for wall-climbing, 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 play in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais football league, in Flandre district: US Ascq, Villeneuve d'Ascq Métropole and Flers OS Villeneuve d'Ascq.
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 since the 2004-2005 season, and also the official stadium of the Entente Sportive de Wasquehal team since 1997-1998 season. In 1997, Stadium Nord was the home stadium of the Royal Excelsior Mouscron for the UEFA Europa League. The stadium hosted the UEFA Europa League matches of Lille Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole, so prestigious clubs such as Fenerbahçe SK, FC Sevilla, Valencia CF and 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 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, 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 hosted the quarter-final of Rugby World cup in 1991 New Zealand vs. Canada. It also hosted the semi-final of European Rugby Cup 2000-2001 Stade français vs. Munster. In 2005, Stadium Nord hosted matches from the under 17 y.o. rugby tournament.
The Stadium Nord frequently hosts 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. 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 Ligue Féminine de Basketball.
The city has also an american football club, Vikings de Villeneuve d'Ascq and a handball club, Hand Ball Club Villeneuve d'Ascq .
The cycling tournament Tour de France arrived in Villeneuve d'Ascq in 1988. 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. One can visit the forum of sciences François Mitterrand, the rebuildings of a Gaulois village to the archeological park Asnapio.

Twin towns - sister cities

Villeneuve-d'Ascq is twinned with: