Yvelines
Department of France
From top down, left to right: prefecture building in Versailles, marble courtyard and gardens of the Palace of Versailles, forest and lake near Guyancourt
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Yvelines in France
Coordinates: 48°50?N 1°55?E / 48.833°N 1.917°E / 48.833; 1.917Coordinates: 48°50?N 1°55?E / 48.833°N 1.917°E / 48.833; 1.917
Country	France
Region	Île-de-France
Prefecture	Versailles
Subprefectures	Mantes-la-Jolie Rambouillet Saint-Germain- en-Laye
Government
o President of the General Council	Pierre Bédier
Area 1
o Total	2,284 km2 (882 sq mi)
Population (2016)
o Total	1,431,808
o Rank	9th
o Density	630/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
o Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number	78
Arrondissements	4
Cantons	21
Communes	259
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

The Yvelines (, ; French: [ivlin] ) are a department in the region of Île-de-France, France. Located west of Hauts-de-Seine, it had a population of 1,431,808 as of 2016. Its main communes are Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Mantes-la-Jolie and Rambouillet.

History

Yvelines was created from the western part of the former department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application (a decree specifying how a law should be enforced) from 26 February 1965. It inherited Seine-et-Oise's official number of 78 since it took up the largest portion of it's territory. In addition to this, it inherited Seine-et-Oise's prefecture, Versailles.

It gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969.

The departmental capital, Versailles, which grew up around Louis XIV's château, was also the French capital for more than a century under the Ancien Régime and again between 1871 and 1879 during the early years of the Third Republic. Since then the château has continued to welcome the French Parliament when it is called upon to sit in a congressional sitting (with both houses sitting together) in order to enact constitutional changes or to listen to a formal declaration by the president.^[1]

Geography

Yvelines is bordered by the departments of Val-d'Oise on the north, Hauts-de-Seine on the east, Essonne on the southeast, Eure-et-Loir on the southwest, and Eure on the west.

The eastern part of the department, as well as its northern part along the Seine, is part of the Paris metropolitan area, but the rest of the department is rural, much of it covered by the Forest of Rambouillet (also known as the Forest of Yveline, from which the name of the department is derived).

Besides Versailles (the prefecture) and the subprefectures of Mantes-la-Jolie, Rambouillet, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, important cities include Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Poissy, Les Mureaux, Houilles, Plaisir, Sartrouville, Chatou, Le Chesnay, and the new agglomeration community of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Two regional parks can be found in Yvelines: the Park of the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse and part of the Park of Vexin Français.

Yvelines is home to one of France's best known golf courses, La Tuilerie-Bignon, in the village of Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche.

Principal towns

Demographics

In French, a man from the Yvelines is called Yvelinois (plural Yvelinois); a woman is Yvelinoise (plural Yvelinoises).

Population development since 1876:

Place of birth of residents

Tourism

Palaces and châteaux

• Palace of Versailles
• Château de Breteuil
• Château du Haut-Buc
• Château de Dampierre
• Château de Maisons
• Château de Rambouillet
• Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
• Château of Thoiry
• Château de Vaux-sur-Seine
• Château de Mauvières
• Château du Pont
• Château de Villette
• Château de Millemont

Museums

• Museum of National Antiques (Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
• Museum of River and Canal Craft (Conflans-Sainte-Honorine)
• Horse-drawn Coach Museum (Versailles)
• Toy Museum (Poissy)
• Sheep Museum (Rambouillet)
• Cloth Museum of Jouy (Jouy-en-Josas)
• National Barn Museum of Port-Royal (Magny-les-Hameaux)
• International Museum of Naive Art
• Musee Lambinet (Versailles)

Artists' and writers' houses

• André Derain's house (Chambourcy)
• Elsa Triolet-Aragon's house (Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines)
• Émile Zola's house (Médan)
• Maurice Ravel's house/museum (Montfort-l'Amaury)
• Ivan Turgenev House (Bougival)
• Alexandre Dumas, père's Château de Monte-Cristo (Port-Marly)
• Jean-Claude Richard's family estate (Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche)

Parks and gardens

• Chèvreloup Arboretum (Rocquencourt)
• Marly Estate (Marly-le-Roi)
• Vaux-sur-Seine Castle Garden (Vaux-sur-Seine)
• The King's Vegetable Garden (Versailles)
• Outdoor and entertainment base of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Trappes)

• 

  Palace & Gardens of Versailles

• 

  The Grand Trianon

• 

  The Hameau de la Reine

• 

  The Venus of Brassempouy from the collection of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

• 

  Lavoir of Jumeauville

Politics

Former Prime Minister of France Michel Rocard, was an MP for the department in the French Socialist Party.

Current National Assembly Representatives

Senators

• Marta de Cidrac (LR)
• Gérard Larcher (LR)
• Sophie Primas (LR)
• Alain Schmitz (LR)
• Michel Laugier (DVD)
• Martin Lévrier (REM)

See also

• Cantons of the Yvelines department
• Communes of the Yvelines department
• Arrondissements of the Yvelines department

References

External links

• (in French) Prefecture of Yvelines
• (in French) General council of Yvelines
• (in French) History of Famous People and Yvelines