Issy-les-Moulineaux

Issy-les-Moulineaux is a commune in the southwestern suburban area of Paris, France, lying on the left bank of the river Seine. Its citizens are called Isséens in French. It is one of Paris's entrances and is located 6.6 km from Notre Dame Cathedral, which is considered Kilometre Zero in France. On 1 January 2010, Issy-les-Moulineaux became part of the Grand Paris Seine Ouest agglomeration community, which merged into the Métropole du Grand Paris in January 2016.

Issy-les-Moulineaux has successfully moved its economy from an old manufacturing base to high value-added service sectors and is at the heart of the Val de Seine business district, the largest cluster of telecommunication and media businesses in France, hosting the headquarters of most major French TV networks.

Geography
Issy-les-Moulineaux is a municipality located on the edge of the 15th arrondissement of Paris, along the main axis between Paris and Versailles, and on the left bank of the Seine. The town is situated 7.5 kilometers southwest of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the central point of France's road network, and 3 kilometers from the town hall of the 15th arrondissement.

It is positioned 4 kilometers east of the sub-prefecture Boulogne-Billancourt and 11 kilometers southeast of the prefecture Nanterre. Within its territory, Issy-les-Moulineaux encompasses an island in the Seine: the Île Saint-Germain.

Name
Originally, Issy-les-Moulineaux was simply called Issy. The name Issy comes from Medieval Latin Issiacum or Isciacum, perhaps meaning "estate of Isicius (or Iccius)", a Gallo-Roman landowner, although some think the name comes from a Celtic radical meaning "under the wood". Local legend recounted on the city's official website mentions alternative origin of the name arising from a temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis said to be under the site of the Church of Saint Stephen.

In 1893 Issy officially became Issy-les-Moulineaux. Les Moulineaux was the name of a hamlet on the territory of the commune, apparently named Les Moulineaux due to the water mill or mills (moulins à eau) that stood there.

History
In July 1815 the Battle of Issy was fought in and around the village, between Prussian and French forces. This was one of the last actions of the 'Hundred Days' campaign and was the final attempt to defend Paris against the armies of the Seventh Coalition.

The town was once the location of the Château d'Issy, destroyed in 1871, former home of the Princes of Conti. On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighboring communes. On that occasion, about a third of the commune of Issy-les-Moulineaux was annexed to Paris, and forms now the neighborhood of Javel, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

Issy-les-Moulineaux is home to a community of 5,000 Armenians that have established themselves in the area since the 1930s. The community has two Armenian churches, an athletic club, a school, a monument dedicated to the Armenian genocide, and a street named after Armenia called Rue d'Armenie, and Rue d'Erevan named after Armenia's capital Yerevan. Issy-les-Moulineaux became twin cities with Echmiadzin, Armenia in December 1989.

Airfield
In the late 19th century, an expansive field in Issy had been dedicated to military exercises. This land, owned by the French Army, was made into an airfield in the 1900s during the pioneering era of aviation. Issy-les-Moulineaux soon became a hot spot for aviation in France, the most active airfield in Paris, and the site of many flight experiments. Photographers, newspaper reporters and intelligence agents from other countries gathered there to report on developments.

The airfield of Issy-les-Moulineaux was the starting point of the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race. One of the competing planes crashed into the audience during take-off, killing the French Minister of War Henri Maurice Berteaux. It hosted the trap shooting events for the 1924 Summer Olympics.

The firm of Appareils d'Aviation Les Frères Voisin, the world's first commercial airplane factory (1908) which was initially located in Boulogne-Billancourt, transformed itself into a luxury automobile manufacturing company named Avions Voisin in 1920. Most of Voisin's manufacturing facilities were then relocated in neighboring Issy-les-Moulineaux. Avions Voisin closed its doors in 1940.

The last fixed wing flight occurred in 1953, after which the aerodrome handled only helicopters; it continues to do this, with the ICAO code LFPI. It is operated by Aéroports de Paris.

Politics and administration
Since the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, Issy forms one canton: Canton of Issy-les-Moulineaux.

Economy
Eurosport, the Canal+ Group, Coca-Cola France, France 24, Jet Solidaire, Microsoft France and Europe, Sodexo, Icade, Technicolor SA and Withings are based in Issy-les-Moulineaux.

Transport
Issy-les-Moulineaux is served by two stations on Paris Métro Line 12: Corentin Celton and Mairie d'Issy, two stations on Paris RER line C: Issy–Val de Seine and Issy and three stations on Île-de-France tramway Line 2: Les Moulineaux, Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Issy–Val de Seine. Multiple RATP bus lines have stops or their arrival/departure station in the city.

Multiple Vélib' and Autolib' stations allow subscribers of those services to share bicycles or electric cars.

There was also a cable car project, abandoned in February 2008.

Education
The commune has 17 public preschools, 16 public elementary schools. four public junior high schools, one public senior high school, and three private schools.

Junior high schools:
 * Collège de la Paix
 * Collège Henri Matisse
 * Collège Georges Mandel
 * Collège Victor Hugo

Lycée Eugène-Ionesco is the community's public senior high school.

Private schools:
 * Groupe scolaire La Salle Saint Nicolas (junior and senior high school)
 * École Arménienne « TARKMANTCHATZ » (preschool and elementary school) - An Armenian school
 * École Sainte-Clotilde (preschool and elementary school)

Notable people

 * Ali, rapper
 * Leïla Bekhti, actress
 * Mickaël Brisset, footballer
 * Robert Charpentier, cyclist
 * Christelle Diallo, basketball player
 * Peter Leo Gerety, (19 July 1912 – 20 September 2016), Roman Catholic Archbishop
 * Jean Jansem, painter
 * Rahavi Kifouéti, footballer
 * Manu Larcenet, comics writer
 * Sandrine Piau, soprano
 * Melchisédech Thévenot (c. 1620–1692), inventor of the spirit level
 * Gilles Vincent, (born 1958), writer

Twin towns – sister cities


Issy-les-Moulineaux is twinned with:


 * 🇩🇪 Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Germany (1962)
 * 🇧🇪 Frameries, Belgium (1979)
 * 🇮🇹 Macerata, Italy (1982)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Hounslow, England, United Kingdom (1982)
 * Dapaong, Togo (1989)
 * 🇦🇲 Vagharshapat, Armenia (1989)
 * 🇪🇸 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain (1990)
 * 🇮🇱 Nahariya, Israel (1994)
 * 🇨🇳 Dongcheng (Beijing), China (1997)
 * 🇨🇳 Leshan, China (2003)
 * 🇰🇷 Guro (Seoul), South Korea (2005)
 * 🇯🇵 Ichikawa, Japan (2012)
 * 🇺🇸 Huntsville, Alabama, United States (2023)

Since 2018, Issy-les-Moulineaux also has friendly relations with New Julfa (Isfahan), Iran.

Sites of interest

 * Île Saint-Germain, an island located in the Seine. The island is divided into two parts, the urban side includes the offices and a residential area. The other side includes a park with the Tour aux Figures (Tower of Figures) by Jean Dubuffet. The Île Seguin is downstream.
 * Musée Français de la Carte à Jouer, a museum of playing cards

External Sources

 * World War I Belgian Refugees: Comite Franco-American pour la Protection des Enfants de la Frontiere -- Izzy-le-Moulineux