Essonne (French pronunciation: [ɛsɔn] ) is a department in the southern suburb part of the Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659, across 194 communes.
Essonne was formed on 1 January 1968, when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments. Its prefecture is Évry-Courcouronnes. Its INSEE and postcode number is 91.
The Île-de-France (/ˌiːl də ˈfrɒ̃s/; French: [il də fʁɑ̃s] ; lit. 'Island of France') is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Containing the capital city of France, Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the Paris Region (French: Région parisienne, pronounced [ʁeʒjɔ̃ paʁizjɛn]). Île-de-France is densely populated and retains a prime economic position on the national stage, and it covers 12,012 square kilometres (4,638 square miles), about 2% of metropolitan French territory. Its 2017 population was nearly one-fifth of the national total.
The region is made up of eight administrative departments: Paris, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Seine-et-Marne, Val-de-Marne, Val-d'Oise and Yvelines. It was created as the "District of the Paris Region" in 1961. In 1976, when its status was aligned with the French administrative regions created in 1972, it was renamed after the historic province of Île-de-France. Residents are sometimes referred to as Franciliens, an administrative word created in the 1980s. The GDP of the region in 2019 was nearly one-third of the French, and 5% of the European Union's. It has the highest per capita GDP of any French region.
The Metropolis of Greater Paris (French: Métropole du Grand Paris, pronounced [metʁopɔl dy ɡʁɑ̃ paʁi]), also known as Greater Paris, is a métropole covering the City of Paris and its nearest surrounding suburbs that was created from Sarkozy's renovation of the city.
The métropole came into existence on 1 January 2016; it comprises 130 communes, including Paris and all 123 communes in the surrounding inner-suburban departments of the Petite Couronne (Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne), plus seven communes in two of the outer-suburban departments, including the communes of Argenteuil in Val-d'Oise, Savigny-sur-Orge, Juvisy-sur-Orge, Viry-Châtillon and Paray-Vieille-Poste in Essonne, the last of which covers part of Orly Airport. Part of the métropole comprises the Seine department, which existed from 1929 to 1968.
Hauts-de-Seine (French pronunciation: [o d(ə) sɛn] ; lit. 'Seine Heights') is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and Essonne to the south. With a population of 1,624,357 (as of 2019) and a total area of 176 square kilometres (68 square miles), it has the second highest population density among all departments of France, after Paris. It is the fifth most populous department in France. Its prefecture is Nanterre, but Boulogne-Billancourt, one of its two subprefectures, alongside Antony, has a larger population.
Hauts-de-Seine is best known for containing the modern office, cinema and shopping complex La Défense, one of Grand Paris's main economic centres and one of Europe's major business districts. Hauts-de-Seine is one of the wealthiest departments in France; it had the highest GDP per capita in France at €107,800 in 2020. Its inhabitants are called Altoséquanais (masculine) and Altoséquanaises (feminine) in French.
Savigny-sur-Orge (French pronunciation: [saviɲi syʁ ɔʁʒ] , literally Savigny upon Orge) is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 19.1 km (11.9 mi) from the center of Paris in the département of Essonne.
During the 2005 civil unrest in France, Savigny was the first city to implement a curfew. It is home to the Jean-Baptiste Corot High School, a twelfth-century château converted into a school and the former property of Marshal Davout.
Juvisy-sur-Orge (French pronunciation: [ʒyvizi syʁ ɔʁʒ] , literally Juvisy on Orge) is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France. It is located 18 kilometres (11 mi) southeast of Paris and a few kilometres south of Orly Airport.
The city is known for Gare de Juvisy, the fourth largest and most-frequented railway station in the Grand Paris.
Paray-Vieille-Poste (French pronunciation: [paʁɛ vjɛj pɔst] ) is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. Paris-Orly Airport is partially located in the commune.
Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (French: [ʒɑ̃lyk melɑ̃ʃɔ̃] ; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who has been the de facto leader of the movement La France Insoumise (LFI) since it was established in 2016. He was the deputy in the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022 and led the La France Insoumise group in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2021. Mélenchon was previously elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009 and reelected in 2014. He has run for President of France three times, in 2012, 2017 and 2022. In 2022, he came within 1.2 percentage points of reaching the second round in France's two-round voting system.
After joining the Socialist Party (PS) in 1976, Mélenchon was successively elected a municipal councillor of Massy (1983) and general councillor of Essonne (1985). In 1986, he entered the Senate, to which he was reelected in 1995 and 2004. He also served as Minister for Vocational Education between 2000 and 2002 under Minister of National Education Jack Lang in the cohabitation government of Lionel Jospin. He was part of the left-wing of the PS until the Reims Congress of November 2008, when he left the party to found the Left Party with Marc Dolez, a member of the National Assembly. Mélenchon first served as party president before becoming party co-president alongside Martine Billard, a position he held until 2014. As co-president of the Left Party, he joined the electoral coalition of the Left Front before the 2009 European Parliament election in France; he was elected as a MEP in the South-West France constituency and reelected in 2014. He became the Left Front's candidate in the 2012 French presidential election, in which he came in fourth, receiving 11.1% of the first-round vote.
The Essonne (French pronunciation: [ɛsɔn] ) is a 101-kilometre (63 mi) long French river. It is a left tributary of the Seine. Its course crosses the departments of Loiret and Essonne, and it gives its name to the latter. The Essone's name and the present name of its higher course (the Œuf) originate in Acionna, a Gallo-Roman river goddess attested at Orléans (Genabum).