Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a French commune located 19 km west of
Paris in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region.
Since January 1, 2019, it has had the status of a new
municipality following the absorption on that date of the
municipality of Fourqueux.
The history of the city of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye has long been linked to the presence of the
castle, which was a regular residence of the kings of France whose
importance nevertheless diminished following the installation of
Louis XIV in Versailles. , and in the forest, a former royal hunting
area. At the start of the 21st century, it was the seat of a
sub-prefecture of Yvelines and had become a sought-after residential
town with a marked international character.
Its inhabitants
are called the Saint-Germanois or Saint-Germanoise. It is the 150th
most populous city in mainland France.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
is famous for its castles (Château-Vieux, remains of Château-Neuf,
Château d'Hennemont), its terrace, its forest, its schools, its
shops and its museums (National Archeology Museum, Priory museum,
Claude-Debussy museum).
The commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, located in the
western suburbs of Paris and in the northeast of the Yvelines
department, is, with its national forest which gives it more than
4,800 hectares, the largest in the department ( the third in
Île-de-France after Fontainebleau and Paris). It occupies the major
part of a loop of the Seine largely covered by the national forest
of the same name. The historic site of the city is located in the
south-eastern part of this territory, on the edge of a limestone
plateau dominating the Seine of about 60 meters and from which the
view extends over a large part of the west. Parisian.
The
neighboring municipalities are Maisons-Laffitte to the north-east,
Le Mesnil-le-Roi to the east, Le Pecq to the south-east,
Mareil-Marly to the south, Chambourcy to the south-west, Poissy to
the west and Achères in a crown from north-west to north-north-east.
The municipal territory extends over a plateau bounded sharply
to the east, culminating at 90 meters at the site of the castle. The
edge of the plateau, partially materialized by the Terrace,
corresponds to the inter-municipal boundary separating Saint-Germain
from Pecq, located below on the banks of the Seine. The plateau
gradually descends to the west to 50 to 60 meters at the edge of
Poissy and to the north to about 25 meters in the agricultural plain
of Achères. Towards the south, it is deeply cut by the valley of the
Ru de Buzot, partially taken by the RN 13 and crossed by viaduct by
the line of the great belt, and climbs sharply to the limit of
Mareil-Marly and Fourqueux up to an altitude of About 100 meters to
Hennemont hill.
Public transport
Communications with Paris are provided by the
RER A line, of which Saint-Germain-en-Laye station is the western
terminus. It crosses Paris via Le Vésinet, the University of
Nanterre, the business center of La Défense, the Place de l'Étoile,
the department stores, the Halles district, the Gare de Lyon, the
Place de la Nation , then continue towards Torcy and Marne-la-Vallée
- Chessy where Disneyland Paris is located. Thanks to an
interconnection, the other branch of the RER can reach
Boissy-Saint-Léger (94).
The town is also crossed from east
to west, in the middle of the forest, by the Paris - Rouen - Le
Havre line which serves the Achères - Grand Cormier passenger
station as well as the Achères depot and the beams of the old yard
of Achères. This line has two branches, one to the north in the
direction of Pontoise and Cergy, the other to the south in the
direction of Poissy-Grande-Ceinture station, disused since 1936.
Among these various land infrastructures, several are classified
with regard to noise pollution from land transport infrastructures.
This is particularly the case of the A14 motorway (classified in
category 1, the highest, but the real impact is relatively limited
for residents, this motorway being underground for most of its route
in the town), the N184 and N13 national roads (category 2) as well
as the Paris-Rouen rail line (category 1) 7.8. The RN13 is isolated
by continuous noise barriers in the valley of the Ru de Buzot.
RER
The line from Paris to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, inaugurated
in 1837, is the oldest railway line open to travelers in France.
Until 1838, the city was served by stagecoaches ("pataches")
which took charge of travelers arriving at the Pecq station (at the
foot of the Pecq bridge on the right bank), terminus of the
Saint-Lazare-Le line. Pecq, because trains cannot cross the height
difference between Le Pecq and the Terrasse de Saint-Germain.
In 1838, the construction of a second track with a railway
bridge and the creation of a so-called "atmospheric" train
(abandoned in 1858) allowed the line to be extended to
Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Inaugurated in 1972, line (A) is
operated by RATP. It allows you to reach the center of the capital
(Châtelet - Les Halles station) in 30 minutes, from
Saint-Germain-en-Laye station, of which it is the terminus, via La
Défense (17 min), with a frequency as high as that of a metro line.
This line succeeds the Paris - Saint-Germain-en-Laye line, including
the Paris - Le Pecq section.
West Express Tram
Partially
reopened in 2004, the line of the Great Western Belt is little used
because it constitutes an isolated section, the connection to the
Saint-Lazare station in Saint-Nom-la Bretèche providing few
advantages to travelers. In the coming years, this section will be
transformed into a tram-train line, the Tram Express Ouest. This
line from suburb to suburb, without passing through intramural
Paris, will be extended north through Poissy to Achères-Ville
station, in correspondence with RER A and Transilien L, and south to
the station of Saint-Cyr, in correspondence with the RER C, the
Transilien N and the Transilien U. It is also envisaged that a
branch connects the station of Grande Ceinture to the station of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the center -city.
Bus
Urban
network
The town of Saint-Germain-en-Laye is served by the
Résalys urban bus network operated by Transdev Montesson Les Rabaux.
Since August 30, 2009, it has included 5 bus lines, 2 of which
are circular lines. As of August 31, 2015, a sixth line will be
added to the off-peak network, line R6.
(BUS) Résalys R1 R2
R3 R4 R5 R6
Long distance network
The municipality of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye is served by many bus lines allowing to go to
many municipalities and important poles of the department such as
Cergy, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Mantes-la-Jolie, Poissy, Versailles
. The N153 bus line of the Noctilien network provides access to
Paris-Saint-Lazare station with one departure per hour in each
direction of traffic from 12:30 am to 6:30 am.
(BUS) RATP 259
(BUS) Seine bus 7SG
(BUS) Coaches Tourneux 3 26
(BUS) CSO 14
21 23 24 27
(BUS) Transdev Conflans 2 4 Express 27
(BUS)
Transdev Ecquevilly 14 511 512
(BUS) TMLB? 1 54
(BUS) TMLR?
Express 1 10 15
(BUS) Right Bank 22
(N) N153
Road infrastructure
Road access to Saint-Germain-en-Laye and
traffic in the city are quite difficult due to congestion,
especially on weekdays at rush hour, of the network made up of
narrow and very old streets. Car parks have been set up in the city
center, in particular the underground park of the castle and that of
the Place du Marché-Neuf (commissioned in 2007).
The town is
served by two national roads, the RN 13, oriented east-west, taking
a four-lane diversion to the south of the city, which connects it to
Paris on the one hand and to Mantes-la-Jolie on the other hand. ,
and the RN 184, oriented north-south, which links
Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Conflans-Sainte-Honorine and Cergy-Pontoise
by crossing the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. These two axes
intersect at an uneven crossroads at Bel-Air.
To relieve
congestion on the RN 13, a new interchange on the A14 motorway at
Chambourcy was put into service in April 2009. It is accompanied by
the upgrading of 2 × 2 lanes of the RN 13 between
Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Le Bel -Air) and the new exchanger.
The nearest highways are respectively the A 13 accessible by the
Orgeval interchange located approximately eight kilometers west of
the city and the A 14 accessible by the Chambourcy interchange
located approximately one kilometer away. 'Where is. The A 14
motorway crosses the town entirely by an underground, located under
the forest to the north of the town, the interchange initially
planned in the forest having been removed by decision of President
François Mitterrand.
The route chosen for the looping of the
Francilienne west of Paris slightly undermines the municipal
territory on its northern edge but avoids crossing the forest.
Several departmental roads connect Saint-Germain-en-Laye to
neighboring municipalities. Those are :
the RD 308 which
links Maisons-Laffitte to Poissy crossing the forest in an east-west
direction and which crosses the RN 184 at the crossroads of the
Croix de Noailles;
RD 157 which links it to Mesnil-le-Roi and
Maisons-Laffitte to the north-east;
the RD 190, crossing the city
center, which links it to Pecq to the west and to Poissy to the
east;
the RD 98 which links it to Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche and Les
Clayes-sous-Bois to the south.
Some of these departmental roads
are exclusively Saint-German: this is the case of the RD 284 which
connects the crossroads of Loges (RN 184 to the north) to the
interchange with the RN 13 to the south of the town and the RD 99
which connects this interchange with the RN 13 at the entrance to
Mareil-Marly.