# Argenteuil

Argenteuil (French: ) is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 12.3 km (7.6 mi) from the center of Paris. Argenteuil is a sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise department, the seat of the arrondissement of Argenteuil. Argenteuil is part of the Métropole du Grand Paris.
Argenteuil is the fourth most populous commune in the suburbs of Paris (after Boulogne-Billancourt, Saint-Denis, and Montreuil) and the most populous one in the Val-d'Oise department, although it is not its prefecture, which is shared between the communes of Cergy and Pontoise.
Argenteuil shares borders with communes in 3 departements others than Val d'Oise : the Yvelines, Hauts-de-Seine, and Seine-Saint-Denis departements.

## Name

The name Argenteuil is recorded for the first time in a royal charter of 697 as Argentoialum, from a Latin/Gaulish root argento meaning "silver", "silvery", "shiny", perhaps in reference to the gleaming surface of the river Seine, on the banks of which Argenteuil is located, and from a Gaulish language suffix -ialo meaning "clearing, glade" or "place of".

## History

Argenteuil was founded as a convent in the 7th century (see Pierre Abélard and the Convent of Argenteuil). The monastery that arose from the convent was later destroyed during the French Revolution.
A rural escape for Parisians, it is now a suburb of Paris. Painters made Argenteuil famous, including Claude Monet, Eugène Delacroix, Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Alfred Sisley and Georges Braque.
The Hotel de Ville was completed in 1994.

## Transport

Argenteuil is served by two stations on the Transilien Paris-Saint-Lazare suburban rail line, which are Argenteuil and Val d'Argenteuil.
Since redeveloped by STIF and SNCF, Argenteuil has been equipped with the new Paris-Saint-Lazare-Ermont-Eaubonne line. The new line was launched in 2006, adding the Paris-Saint Lazare / Cormeilles-en-Parisis - Pontoise / Mantes-la-Jolie service to Paris for about ten minutes.
By Bus* :
361 Gare d'Argenteuil à Gare de Pierrefitte - Stains RER;
140 Gare d'Argenteuil - Asnières-Gennevilliers - Gabriel Péri;
164 Argenteuil - Claude Monet College - Porte de Champerret;
By train* :
Gare d'Argenteuil (SNCF-J): Paris Saint-Lazare in 15 minutes and Colombes in 4 minutes
Gare Saint-Gratien (T-8): Porte Maillot in 22 minutes
Épinay Orgemont (T-8): Gare Saint-Denis in 20 minutes
Travel by car:
City centre: 10 minutes;
Paris Saint-Lazare: 25 minutes
La Défense: 20 minutes;
Colombes: 10 minutes;
la Plaine-Saint-Denis: 18 minutes;
Porte de Clichy: 15 minutes;

## Education

As of 2016, the commune's schools have over 12,000 students. The commune has:
* 30 public preschools (maternelles) and one private elementary school with a preschool
* 26 public and 2 private elementary schools
* 11 junior high schools (collèges) - 10 public and 1 private
* 6 senior high schools/sixth-form colleges:
** Lycée Georges Braque
** Lycée Cognacq-Jay
** Lycée Julie-Victoire Daubié
** Lycée Jean Jaurès
** Lycée Fernand et Nadia Léger
** Ecole nationale des professions de l'automobile (private)
Paris 13 University serves as the area university.
The Conservatoire à rayonnement départemental de Musique, Danse et Théâtre is located in Argenteuil. André Bon is one of its former students.

## Population

| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
| 1793 | 5,356 | — |
| 1800 | 4,609 | −2.12% |
| 1806 | 4,249 | −1.35% |
| 1821 | 4,423 | +0.27% |
| 1831 | 4,542 | +0.27% |
| 1836 | 4,536 | −0.03% |
| 1841 | 4,377 | −0.71% |
| 1846 | 4,586 | +0.94% |
| 1851 | 4,767 | +0.78% |
| 1856 | 5,857 | +4.20% |
| 1861 | 7,269 | +4.41% |
| 1866 | 8,176 | +2.38% |
| 1872 | 8,389 | +0.43% |
| 1876 | 8,990 | +1.74% |
| 1881 | 11,849 | +5.68% |
| 1886 | 12,809 | +1.57% |
| 1891 | 13,339 | +0.81% |
| 1896 | 15,116 | +2.53% |
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
| 1901 | 17,375 | +2.82% |
| 1906 | 19,829 | +2.68% |
| 1911 | 24,282 | +4.14% |
| 1921 | 32,173 | +2.85% |
| 1926 | 44,538 | +6.72% |
| 1931 | 70,657 | +9.67% |
| 1936 | 59,314 | −3.44% |
| 1946 | 53,543 | −1.02% |
| 1954 | 63,316 | +2.12% |
| 1962 | 82,321 | +3.34% |
| 1968 | 90,480 | +1.59% |
| 1975 | 102,530 | +1.80% |
| 1982 | 95,347 | −1.03% |
| 1990 | 93,096 | −0.30% |
| 1999 | 93,961 | +0.10% |
| 2007 | 102,572 | +1.10% |
| 2012 | 104,962 | +0.46% |
| 2017 | 110,210 | +0.98% |
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. :
Source: EHESS and INSEE (1968–2017) :

### Immigration

Place of birth of residents of Argenteuil in 1999 :
| Born in metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France |
| 77.5% | 22.5% | 22.5% | 22.5% | 22.5% |
| 77.5% | Born in overseas France | Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth$^1$ | EU-15 immigrants$^2$ | Non-EU-15 immigrants |
| 77.5% | 2.1% | 2.1% | 4.3% | 14.0% |
| $^1$ This group is made up largely of former French settlers, such as pieds-noirs in Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), as well as to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. A foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics. $^2$ An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. An immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants. |||||

## Twin towns – sister cities

Argenteuil is twinned with:
* Alessandria, Italy
* Dessau-Roßlau, Germany
* Hunedoara, Romania
* West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

## Notable people

* Héloïse (c. 1100/01 – 1163/64), nun, philosopher and writer
* Charles Longuet (1839–1903), journalist and socialist activist
* Claude Monet (1840–1926), painter, lived and worked here in 1871–1878
* Georges Braque (1882–1963), painter, sculptor and co-founder of cubism
* Sidney Duteil (born 1955), musician and television host
* Ingrid Chauvin (born 1971), actress
* Thomas Henry (born 1994), professional footballer
* Florent Mothe (born 1981), singer and actor
* Franck Béria (born 1983), retired professional footballer and functionary
* Ibrahim Gary (born 1985), karateka
* Fabien Ateba (born 1991), basketball player
* Kevin Mayer (born 1992), athlete, Olympic medalist
* Cécile Pelous, philanthropist and designer
* Laurina Fazer (born 2003), footballer for France

## Famous paintings of Argenteuil

* By Claude Monet:
Autumn at Argenteuil, Regatta at Argenteuil, Red Boats, Argenteuil, The Bridge at Argenteuil, The Port at Argenteuil, The Seine at Argenteuil, View of Argenteuil-Snow, Bords de la Seine a Argenteuil, and Snow at Argenteuil. And Train in snow at Argenteuil.
* By other painters:
Argenteuil and Seine near Argenteuil by Édouard Manet, Regatta at Argenteuil by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and The Bridge in Argenteuil by Gustave Caillebotte.

### Gallery

* Claude Monet, The Seine at Argenteuil, 1873
* Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil, 1873
* Édouard Manet, The Seine near Argenteuil, 1874
* Claude Monet, The Seine at Argenteuil, 1874
* Édouard Manet, Argenteuil, 1875
* Claude Monet, Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil, 1875