The Île-de-France is a region in northern France that is largely
identical to the Paris metropolitan area and is therefore also known as
the Paris agglomeration. The region consists of the city of Paris (with
the serial number 75) and the departments of Essonne (91),
Hauts-de-Seine (92), Seine-et-Marne (77), Seine-Saint-Denis (93), Val-
d'Oise (95), Val de Marne (94) and Yvelines (78). It has an area of
12,012 km² and 12,395,148 inhabitants (as of January 2022). Important
cities besides Paris, which is also the administrative center of the
region, are Versailles, Boulogne-Billancourt, Montreuil, Argenteuil and
Saint-Denis. The inhabitants are called Franciliens. The department with
the ordinal number 75 forms the core city, the departments 92, 93 and 94
form the Petite Couronne (first inner suburban belt) and the departments
77, 78, 91 and 95 the Grande Couronne (second outer suburban belt). The
region is heavily urbanized well into the outer suburbs. In its largest
extent (northwest-southeast), the continuously built-up settlement area
stretches over about 80 kilometers. With over 11 million inhabitants,
the Paris metropolitan area, which includes large parts of the
Île-de-France region, is the largest metropolitan area in the European
Union, making Paris one of the megacities.
The name Île-de-France
(German island of France) is today mostly explained with the location
between the rivers Seine, Marne, Oise and Beuvronne, which enclose the
area like an island. The name may also go back to an old Franconian name
Liddle Franke, i.e. "small francs" or "small franc(en)reich". As a zone
d'études et d'aménagement du territoire and NUTS 1 region, it is now
also called the Région parisienne (Paris region).
The most common
dialects in the Île-de-France are Francien (French) and Champenois, the
Champagne dialect.
Paris
Bobigny
Boulogne-Billancourt
Eragny
Fontainebleau
Le Bourget
Levallois-Perret
Marne-la-Vallée
Meaux
Nogent-sur-Marne
Provins
Roissy-en-Brie
Roissy-en-France
Château de
Vincennes
Rueil-Malmaison
Saint-Denis
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Versailles
Disneyland Paris
By plane
The region is home to the two Paris airports 1 Charles de
Gaulle (IATA: CDG) and 2 Orly (IATA: ORY) , the largest airports in
France. Both are served directly from various airports in
German-speaking countries. Third, Beauvais Airport 3 (IATA: BVA) is just
north of the Picardy region. It mainly serves as a hub for low-cost
airlines such as Ryanair.
By train
Paris is the center of the
French long-distance train network. There are six major train stations,
each for one cardinal point. From German-speaking countries there are
direct high-speed trains from Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich.
By car
Several free motorways and four-lane roads make it possible
to travel in Île-de-France. However, there are often a lot of traffic
jams: on weekdays, avoid using them between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and
5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (variable depending on proximity to Paris). The
speed is limited to 110 km/h or even 90 km/h on the motorways near
Paris.
The ring road: it is a road ring which marks the limit of
“Paris intra muros”. It is used as a highway since there are no traffic
lights or intersections. He is very famous for his clutter. Please note
that priority on the right applies to incoming channels.
A13:
(direction Rouen) Western motorway
A6: (towards Lyon) Southern
Motorway
A5: (towards Lyon) South-East.
A86: Very practical, makes
a full circle around Paris. The western part is paying and expensive. (1
€ per km)
A14: chargeable and quite expensive.
N104: The
Francilienne. It makes a semi-circle around Paris, by the east side, and
at a greater distance than the A86. Its distance from Paris makes it a
little less sensitive to congestion.
N118: Connects Paris-Ouest
(Porte d'Auteuil and Boulogne) to the A10 and the N104.
to be
completed...
The site
http://www.sytadin.tm.fr gives the state of traffic in Île-de-France
in real time.
By RER
5 RER lines (A, B, C, D and E), all
connected to Paris, provide fairly fast connections with the capital.
The different stations are divided into zones. Be careful, it sometimes
costs less to take a 24-hour all-zone ticket than to take a return
ticket between two distant zones (Go/Return Disneyland - Roissy, for
example).
http://www.transilien.com
http://www.ratp.fr
A bicycle
The bicycle is the best way
to get around Paris intra muros to enjoy the city. Tracks specially
designed for them exist on many certain arteries of the capital. Their
plan is available here:
http://www.paris.fr/portail/viewmultimediadocument?multimediadocument-id=12177
You have to be careful because you share the public road with
cars and motorized two-wheelers.
Historically, Île-de-France is more extensive than today's region, as
evidenced by the province of Île-de-France on the eve of the French
Revolution.
The Île-de-France was the heartland of France, which
was usually referred to by names like Francia or Franzien. The standard
French language is based on the language of the royal court, which was
based on the dialect of the Île-de-France along with other northern
French dialects.
Since the subjugation of Syagrius by Clovis I,
the area has been, with only a brief interruption in the 7th century, a
political center of the Frankish kingdom of the Merovingians and
Carolingians and from the 9th century of the West Frankish kingdom. For
centuries it was identical to the French crown domain, the Domaine
royal. From here the Gothic spread, which was originally the
architectural style of this region and was therefore also considered the
French "royal style". It was not until Louis XIV onwards that the French
kings ruled from Versailles, where they created the imposing,
much-copied Palace of Versailles.
With the formation of the
departments in 1789/90, the province was dissolved as an administrative
unit.
When the program regions (Régions de programme) were formed
in 1956, the area was initially given the name Région Parisienne. In
1976, the Région Parisienne was officially renamed Île-de-France.
However, the territory of the new region differs significantly from that
of the former province in some areas. Like the other regions,
Île-de-France has had a directly elected regional council since 1986.
The population of 10,952,011 at the time of the 1999 census has
increased to 12,395,148 by 2022, according to estimates by the state
statistical institute, INSEE, which means that the population density
has increased from 912 to 1032 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Île-de-France is by far the most populous, densely populated region of
France. In 2022, 18.9 percent of all residents of European France,
France métropolotaine, lived in Île-de-France.
The majority of
the inhabitants live in the urban agglomeration (Unité urbaine) around
Paris, which with 9,644,507 inhabitants (1999) is the largest in France
and one of the largest in Europe. Just thirteen years later, in 2012,
the Unité urbaine had a population of 10,550,350 and 10,706,072 in 2015.
The Paris metropolitan area (Aire urbaine), which is almost
identical to the Île-de-France region, had 12,405,426 inhabitants in
2013 and 12,532,901 in 2015. In 2016 the population was already
12,568,755.
The following table shows the population development
in the Île-de-France since 1876, divided into its eight departments: The
data refer to the current territorial status, which has remained
unchanged since the 1968 regional reform in the Île-de-France.
On
January 1, 1968, the departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise were
dissolved by a law of 1964. The newly created department of Paris
received the number 75 of the former department of Seine. The department
of Yvelines received the number 78 of the former department of
Seine-et-Oise. Three newly created departments received the numbers of
the former Algerian departments of Alger, Oran and Constantine: Essonne
received 91, Hauts-de-Seine 92, and Seine-Saint-Denis 93. The
departments of Val-de-Marne received new numbers with the 94 and
Val-d'Oise with the 95. The Seine department was divided into four new
departments: Paris (consisting only of the city of Paris),
Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne. The latter three
departments also include some communes that previously belonged to the
department of Seine-et-Oise. The department of Seine-et-Oise was divided
into three new departments: Yvelines, Essonne and Val-d'Oise. Only the
department of Seine-et-Marne, number 77, remained untouched by the
territorial reform.
As can be seen in the following table, the
population increase at the beginning of the 20th century mainly took
place in Paris and the Petite Couronne. Since the 1930s, the population
of Paris has been declining, due to severe overpopulation with a
population density of about 30,000 inhabitants per square kilometer for
the city of Paris in the 1920s. Paris was considered the most densely
populated metropolis in Europe. Furthermore, the population density fell
due to the modernization of apartments and the merger of small
apartments (Paris has a very old building fabric). The reduction in the
average household size, the emergence of offices and the better
accessibility of the center through the ever better developed local
public transport and newly built motorways into the banlieues also
contributed to this development.
After decades of population
decline, Paris experienced population growth again between 1997 and
2011. Since 2012, however, the population has been declining again.
Population growth in the Petite Couronne has stagnated since the
1960s, before showing a population growth that has continued since the
late 1990s.
While until the 1950s the population grew mainly in
Paris and the Petite Couronne and the Grande Couronne only grew less,
this changed in the 1950s, where since then the population in the Grande
Couronne has continued to grow to this day. The Grande Couronne grew
particularly strongly in the 1960s and 1970s due to the construction of
large housing estates and huge new development areas and the expansion
of the Villes nouvelles, all of which are located in the Grande
Couronne. The population growth continues to this day.
Today, the
Petite Couronne is almost completely urbanized and has a very high
population density, with an average of 5,000 to 9,000 inhabitants per
km², depending on the department. With more than 20,000 inhabitants per
km², Paris is still the most densely populated metropolis in Europe. The
Grande Couronne also has a high population density for area departments,
with the areas bordering the Petite Couronne showing a high degree of
urbanization and the cities have grown together seamlessly with the
cities of the Petite Couronne and these in turn seamlessly with Paris.
Today, all seven suburban departments of Île-de-France are growing
in terms of population, with the Petite Couronne (because of its
proximity and easy access to the center and lower prices than Paris) and
the Seine-et-Marne department being the most recent many new development
areas are growing the most. In all the departments of the Île-de-France,
the population growth is due solely to a surplus of births. This amounts
to around 110,000 people per year (with around 180,000 births and 70,000
deaths per year in the Île-de-France). Except for the department of
Seine-et-Marne, all departments of the Île-de-France have a negative
migration balance. This amounts to around −50,000 people per year. As a
result, the region is growing by around 60,000 people per year, which
corresponds to an annual increase of 0.5 percent and is exactly in line
with the national average.
Since the mid-1970s, the Île-de-France
region has recorded a migration loss compared to the rest of France. By
then, the region had seen large gains from migration. Reasons for the
migration loss are the high price level, the shortage of housing, the
hustle and bustle of the big city and the desire for more living space,
which can only be fulfilled in the countryside due to the high prices.
The region is experiencing high migration losses, especially in the
over-50s age group, which is due to the fact that many are retiring to
the countryside or to the south of France because of the nicer weather.
It remains to be seen how the planned increase in the number of
newly built apartments per year in the Île-de-France from the current
40,000 to 70,000 as part of the Le Grand Paris project will affect
population development.
Since the problems of the inner departments bordering Paris often
differ significantly from those of those further out, an (informal)
distinction is occasionally made in this sense.
The Petite
Couronne, the inner ring that surrounds Paris, summarizes the three
departments that border Paris: Hauts-de-Seine (92), Seine-Saint-Denis
(93) and Val-de-Marne (94) . Until 1967, these essentially formed the
Seine department together with Paris. They are highly urbanized, with a
high population density.
The Grande Couronne, the outer ring,
consists of the departments of Seine-et-Marne (77), Yvelines (78),
Essonne (91) and Val-d'Oise (95). The inner part of the Grande Couronne,
which connects to the Petite Couronne, is also heavily urbanized. The
urbanized zone in the Île-de-France, which is continuously built up, has
a diameter of about 70 kilometers. Outside of this area, the Grande
Couronne is still very rural in many areas. The only exceptions are a
few regional centers such as Rambouillet, Provins and Étampes.
The Île-de-France region is by far the most prosperous in France and
one of the most important economies in the world. The share of France's
economic output was 30.5 percent in 2016, which corresponded to around
680 billion euros. In comparison with the gross domestic product of the
European Union, expressed in purchasing power standards, the region
achieved an index of 176 in 2015 (EU-28 = 100). In 2017, the
unemployment rate was 8.7 percent, below the national average.
The Disneyland Resort Paris amusement park has existed in
Marne-la-Vallée east of Paris since 1992.
One of the main
business centers is La Défense, a high-rise district located on the
western outskirts of the city of Paris.