Val d'Europe

Val d'Europe is a part of the new town known as Marne-la-Vallée. The final area of the district is currently in development. It is located around 35 kilometers to the east of Paris, near Disneyland Paris. Val d'Europe was built in conjunction with The Walt Disney Company, who wished to create a town near the Disney resort.
==Description & history==
Val d'Europe is made up of five communities, which have grouped together to form a town council. The five districts are:
*Bailly-Romainvilliers
*Chessy
*Coupvray
*Magny-le-Hongre
*Serris
The area is primarily given over to Disneyland Park, as per the contract between the government and The Walt Disney Company. One of the terms was that the Euro Disney Resort (now Disneyland Paris) immediately got 19.40 square kilometers of land to build Festival Disney (now named Disney Village).
Euro Disney SCA is the only private company within France that has had such a large say in the development of an urban area of this scale. The government was represented by an EPA (governmental development company). Disney has also contributed to the development of the new town Marne-la-Vallée.
The building work started in 1987, after Jacques Chirac (then French prime minister) and Disney signed the contract. Val d'Europe was to be opened with the Euro Disney Resort in 1992. The villages of Bailly-Romainvilliers, Magny-le-Hongre and Serris were to be made into housing estates for the employees.
It was not until the start of 1998 that Val d'Europe saw the opening of its shopping centre, which included a hypermarket and boutiques. However, the garden centre (Delbard) was opened in 2004 in a building to the south of the shopping centre.
As of 2005, Val d'Europe has a population of 19,700 people, but this is expected to increase to 40,000 people and 60,000 employees. 19.43 out of 30.00 square kilometers is currently given over to development by Disney. Euro Disney SCA has spent €5 billion ($5,953,266,855/£3,420,806,667), compared to €500 million ($595,326,686 /£342,080,667) from the French government.
The architectural style takes inspiration from the "neo-traditional" style of the Baron Haussmann, who supervised the construction of many buildings in Paris in the 19th century. The town plan, by Cooper, Robertson & Partners of New York City, was designed based upon traditional French town planning principles consistent with the New Urbanism, a design philosophy which is frequently used in the United States and used with the intent to plan new cities based upon known working principles studied by architects. Disney had previously created a New Urbanist city in Florida, known as Celebration, also designed by Cooper, Robertson & Partners. It is believed that Val d'Europe and Celebration are descendants of Walt Disney's original plan for The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow – EPCOT, which was originally intended as Walt Disney's plan for a city of the future.
== The shopping centre ==
There is a large Auchan hypermarket, 130 shops and a food court known as "Les Terrasses." As well as a SEA LIFE aquarium indoor with about 300 species of marine creatures.
==See also==
* Golden Oak at Walt Disney World Resort A concept high-end resort living community within the Walt Disney World resort
* Celebration, Florida a census-designated place (CDP) and a master-planned community in Osceola County, Florida, United States, located near Walt Disney World and originally developed by The Walt Disney Company.
==External links==
* SAN Val d'Europe official site
* Val d'Europe official site
* Val d'Europe Shopping Areas
* Val d'Europe Wins Award For Excellence
* Aquarium Sea Life official site
* Centre Commercial map
* Euro Disney SCA official site
* La Vallée Village official site
* SEA LIFE centre Paris Val d'Europe official website
Category:Walt Disney Company subsidiaries
Category:The Walt Disney Company
Category:Disneyland Resort Paris
Category:Shopping places