Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis
Montreuil (), sometimes unofficially referred to as Montreuil-sous-Bois (), is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris in Seine-Saint-Denis. With a population of 109,914 as of 2018, Montreuil is the fourth most populous suburb of Paris after Boulogne-Billancourt, Saint-Denis and Argenteuil. It is located north of Paris's Bois de Vincennes in the 12th arrondissement, on the border with Val-de-Marne. Name. The name Montreuil was recorded for the first time in a royal edict of 722 as "Monasteriolum", meaning "little  monastery" in Medieval Latin. The settlement of Montreuil started as a group of houses built around a small monastery. History. Under the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI the "Peach Walls" which provided the royal court with the fruits were located in Montreuil. It was also later home to the Lumière brothers and George Méliès whose workshops were located in lower Montreuil. On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighboring communes. On that occasion, the commune of Charonne was disbanded and divided between the city of Paris, Montreuil, and Bagnolet. Montreuil received a small  part of the territory of Charonne. Today Montreuil is divided into several districts: Demographics. Immigration. Montreuil's inhabitants often exaggeratedly nickname the town the "second Malian town after Bamako", or sometimes "Mali-sous-Bois" or "Bamako-sur-Seine" even if the Seine doesn't cross the town. Montreuil has indeed a very important Malian population : more than inhabitants according to the INSEE in 1999, between and people according to the "mairie", which estimates that Montreuil has the largest Malian community in France. 10% of the population is Malian or has Malian origins. Administration. The mayor of Montreuil is the member  of Parti communiste français Patrice Bessac, who was elected on the second round of 2014 municipal elections, defeating the former ex-Communist mayor Jean-Pierre Brard in a four-way second round. He was re-elected in the first round of the 2020 elections with 51.34% votes, though with 33.67% participation (down from 53.11% in the 2014 election) due to the COVID-19 crisis (which also caused a delay of the 2nd turn in other cities). The city is divided into two cantons: canton of Montreuil-1 and canton of Montreuil-2. Economy. Video game company Ubisoft has its corporate head office in  Montreuil. The Air France Paris office (of Air France-KLM) is in Montreuil. Education. The commune's educational services are operated out of the Opale B Administrative Building. Montreuil has eight "collèges", three "lycées", two "lycées techniques", and the IUT of the University of Paris 8. Senior high schools/sixth form colleges: The Montreuil Library (Bibliothèque de Montreuil) consists of the Robert-Desnos Central Library, the Daniel-Renoult Library, the Colonel-Fabien Library, and the Paul-Eluard Library. Robert-Desnos, in a park near the commune's town hall, is the largest library in the commune. It houses a music  library and Internet access points. Daniel-Renoult, near Montreau Park, serves the Montreau-Ruffins Théophile Sueur community. Colonel-Fabien, in the Ramenas-Fabien-Léo Lagrange community, is near the Intercommunal Hospital. Paul-Eluard is near the La Grande Porte shopping centre and is within of the Robespierre Paris Métro station and Rue de Paris. Transport. Montreuil is served by three stations on Paris Métro Line 9: Robespierre, Croix de Chavaux, and Mairie de Montreuil. There are several new Métro (Line 11 - Montreuil-Hôpital) and tramway (extension of the T1 tramway) stations under construction. The region is also working on the  extension of the Métro Line 1 to Val-de-Fontenay, with a possible new station in the East of Montreuil (Grands Pêchers). International relations. Montreuil is twinned with Cottbus, Brandenburg, Germany and a few other towns and cities of Africa, Asia and Europe.