French Vexin

The French Vexin is an old province of France, which is located in the North-West of the Île-de-France and a small portion of the Picardy at horse on the departments of the Val-d'Oise of the Yvelines and the Oise. Although formant from now on with the town of Cergy an agglomeration contrasting with the rural character of French Vexin, Pontoise is the historical capital.

Geography

French Vexin, like its counterpart the Norman Vexin, is presented essentially in the form of a calcareous plate covered of silts, with well released spaces, the altitude varying from 100 to approximately 140 m, surmounted wooded hillocks and with agricultural vocation (cereal field crop). It is clearly delimited in the south by the Méandre S of the Seine, which dug it while forming by places of the abrupt cliff S. The territory of form coarsely rectangular, of approximately 40 kilometers out of 35, is delimited geographically by relatively boxed rivers:

in the south by the the Seine,
in the east by the Oise,
in the west by the Epte,
in north by the valleys of the Esches (river), of the Troesne or more simply by the Cuesta of Vexin.

In Oise, the limits of French Vexin are theoretically marked by the Cuesta of Vexin which separates the plate from Vexin of that of the Pays of close Thelle. However, certain villages located beyond this limit (on the slopes of the cuesta, in the valley of Troesne or Esches to see it even beyond) are often regarded as vexinois, they sometimes carry it in their name even. Among these villages out of the strict geographical of the territory, some, rare limits, show only little landscape and architectural characteristics of Vexin. They nevertheless are entered in the nomenclature of the section administrative organization, hereafter. The Picardy limits north and is of French Vexin are fuzziest of the natural area, the others being clearly delimited by rivers of importance (the Seine, Oise and Epte), which causes uncertainties being the classification of certain communes in an entity or another, as often when it is a question of delimiting natural areas.

The interior of the plate is dominated by a series of hillocks and is irrigated by several rivers, affluents of the precedents:

the Sausseron and the Viosne, affluents of the Oise,
the Montcient and the Bus shelter of Meulan, affluents of the the Seine,
the Bus shelter of Magny and the Troesne, affluents of the Epte.

The valleys present very varied aspects, sometimes constituting in true alluvial plains the such Aubette of Magny, sometimes in valley the long and relatively boxed such Viosne.

Seven of the fourteen hillocks constitute a watershed separating the plate in north from the valley of the the Seine in the south, this line begins in the Massif from Hautil in the east and finishes in the old forest of Arthies in the west. The other hillocks are more or less scattered and insulated on the plate. The majority consist of Gypse and of a cover in Meulière very hard and uncultivated, they are for this reason generally wooded. Certain découronnées hillocks saw to be established villages at their tops (Cléry-in-Vexin, Grisy-the-Plasters) or on their sides (Bréançon). The Gypse was exploited as of the top Moyen-âge, in particular with Grisy-the-Plasters.

The Hillocks of Rosne, in north, constitute the culminating point of the Vexin and the very whole area Île-de-France with 217 meters.

French Vexin is an area overall very rural, and with weak density of population, except for the valleys of the the Seine and the Oise, largely urbanized today, which form its southern limits and is, which undergoes the attraction of the great urban centres located at its periphery. They are mainly Rouen in the west and Paris in the east, and, more close relations, Vernon and Mantes-the-Pretty in the south, and especially the new Ville of Cergy-Pontoise in the south-east which counts 200.000 inhabitants and more than 90.000 employment and includes/understands the historical capital of French Vexin, Pontoise.

The main city of the Norman Vexin close, Gisors, account approximately 10.000 inhabitants; she exerts a certain economic influence on the north of French Vexin. However its situation in the department close to the the Eure and the close area High-Normandy decreases this relative capacity of attraction. The only notable agglomerations of French Vexin are in general in periphery of the agricultural plate: the small town of Chaumont-in-Vexin in the North-East, agglomeration of Cergy-Pontoise in the east, Meulan and Limay in the south. Magny-in-Vexin from its relatively central situation tends to becoming the small capital of the agricultural plate of French Vexin, with a marked commercial vocation.

The landscape is characterized by an important grouping of the population in villages, which was accentuated with the wire of the centuries, the rare variations and farms isolated accounting for only 5% from the total population.

The main axe of communication is the Trunk road 14 which connects Paris to Rouen via Pontoise. Its layout, which is most direct between the two cities, is rather rectilinear and follows that of old a Roman Voie, the Chaussée Jules-César.

Geology

The Geology of French Vexin, constitutive of the Paris basin, is characterized by its sedimentary nature .

The basement includes/understands several types of superimposed rocks. The first is the white Craie campanienne, oldest, going back to approximately 80 million years and approximately eighty meters thickness, which levels in the funds of valleys. It is surmounted by a layer Calcaire Montien (65 million years), stone to build vexinoise par excellence, then by the layers of Argile and Sable of the Yprésien, whose clays of the Sparnacien, thick from five to fifteen meters, their impermeable character causes the appearance of lines of sources and returns the funds of marshy valleys. This layer is surmounted by the sand of the Cuisien, from ten to thirty meters thicknesses.

One finds then the important mass calcareous of the Lutétien, a thickness from twenty to forty meters, and which constitutes the base of the plate of Vexin. Its presence explains the existence of karstic phenomena . The layers of the Bartonien which succeed to him (40 million years) see to alternate the sandstone and Auversien sands it, then the limestone of Saint-Ouen, and finally sands of the Marinésien, thick from five to thirty meters.

Communication network

Except for the valley of the the Seine in the south traversed several great transportation routes, and valley of the Oise to a lesser extent, French Vexin is traversed only by relatively secondary axes which explain its long insulation partly. Only the Trunk road 14 crosses it twice, recently put at two ways to the exit of Magny-in-Vexin. The only railway crossing the plate is the line Transilien Paris Saint-Lazare - Gisors-Junction, secondary line of large crown, primarily used for a pendular passenger traffic of large crown and departures/returns of weekends.

History

The origin of the name comes from the Gallic people of the Véliocasses which occupied in extension the area: the pagus of Véliocasses which became the country of Vexin.

Until the Treated Saint-Clearly-on-Epte in 911:

The Middle Ages

The county of Vexin was set up towards 750. Depending on the diocese of Rouen, French Vexin is under the influence of Paris, nearer and to the Abbaye of Saint-Denis which has many grounds there. In order to put an end to the raids devastators Viking S since 840, the king of France Charles III Simple the treats with the Viking S and concedes the July 11th 911 with the Norman chief Rollon, by the Traité Saint-Clearly-on-Epte, all the territory located between the Epte at north, and the Avre in the south, and the sea, territory which became the Duché of Normandy.

The Vexin is then divided into two: the Norman Vexin in the west which will become integral part of the Duché of Normandy, and Vexin French in the east, possession of the king of France. This partition will generate several centuries of conflicts between the two neighbors, especially when the duke of Normandy became king of England in 1066, and that the ambitions of the two sovereigns did not cease growing.

Nevertheless the county of Vexin was not then under the real control of the king of France, but under that of large feudal, Raoul de Gouy, also owner of the counties of Amiens and Valois. In 1063, Gauthier III of Gouy dies poisoned, prisoner of Guillaume Bastard the. His/her cousin Raoul IV of Vexin succeeds to him, and his/her single son Simon de Vexin enters to the monastery in 1077. The king of France Philippe {{Ier}} benefits from it to annex French Vexin with the Royaume of France.

The counts de Vexin were Avoué S of the Abbaye of Saint-Denis.

Rebirth

Towards 1550, French Vexin finds its population of 1332, that is to say approximately 25.000 inhabitants. But found prosperity does not last a long time: the Wars of religion begin. The General states are convened with Pontoise by the chancellor Michel of Hospital, in 1560. But they do not manage to restore peace. Several lords of Vexin reject the Réforme, they make of Vexin a fortified town of the catholic Ligue. The king Henri III, accompanied by Henri de Navarre, future Henri IV, must put the seat in front of Pontoise the July 8th 1589, after having begun again Meulan. The city goes, but Henri III is assassinated with Saint-Cloud a few weeks later, and as of 1590, the duke of Mayenne, chief of the Sainte League takes again possession of Pontoise. In 1594, Henri IV abjures the Protestantisme, Pontoise opens its doors to him, and the Vexin finds religious peace.

XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries

The Vexin makes little speak about him lasting the 17th century. The life takes again there its course, only stopped by several successive waves of Peste in 1625, 1630, 1636 and 1642 then by the Fronde of 1648 with 1652.

The 18th century is paticulièrement prosperous: 80% of the surface of the territory are covered by the ploughings, the three-year rotation rests on the alternation of the Blé, the oats and the Jachère. The Blé reaches a remarkable output of fifteen quintals to the hectare. The Pâturage is also important, with approximately 30.000 ovine and from 7 to 8.000 Vache S, even if the natural meadows occupy only 4% of the surface. The Forêt does not know its more considerable retreat at that time, not occupying any more but 8% of the territory. The country is then controlled by approximately 400 large farmers, to whom it clergy and the nobility delegated, in addition to the ground and the Moulin S, the perception of the Impôt.

The Revolution and the XIXe century

The French revolution did not involve in the Vexin the large upheavals known elsewhere, if not that the middle-class grew rich by the purchase by national goods in particular.

The Potato starts to be massively cultivated, then the production of beets sugar starts the construction of sugar refineries and factories of distillation.

The Railroad makes its appearance in the middle of the 19th century with the line Paris - Dieppe, then by lines secondary like Valmondois - Marines. It makes it possible Vexinois to more easily sell their agricultural productions on the Parisian market. It also brings to cost much more accessible the products of other areas, thus the wine is imported and the vine disappears little by little from the landscape of French Vexin.

But the 19th century leaves especially the whole of the Vexin apart from the Industrial revolution: some factories appear timidly here and there (Bray-and-Lu for example) but their number remains very limited, the population stagnates, the villages do not grow bigger more after the Révolution, French Vexin counts 29.928 inhabitants in 1790, value close to that of the Moyen-âge, it counts of them 30.453 in 1876 and 32.195 in 1962. French Vexin remains since an area with clear agricultural vocation.

At the end of the century, the painters landscape designers, then the impressionist plant their rests in the campaigns of Vexin, and the valley of Oise in particular: Daubigny with Auvers-sur-Oise, then Pissarro with Pontoise and Éragny-on-Epte, Claude Monet with Vétheuil, followed later by Cézanne then Van Gogh to Auvers-sur-Oise returns the landscapes of French Vexin famous in the whole world. Other post-impressionist painters settle in Vexin, William Thornley with Osny for example.

The XXe century

During the Second world war, Pontoise is bombarded by the Germans the 7 and June 10th 1940, then, by the Allies this time, the August 9th and August 14th 1944. In 1944, Rommel installs in the boves the Rock-Guyon its staff, and a factory of assembly of rockets V1 is installed in the mushroom beds of Nucourt. These villages are then rammed by R.A.F, Nucourt is destroyed with 95%, Moussy and Banthelu very reached, and the damaged castle of the Rock-Guyon.

The August 30th 1944 the British and Canadian troops penetrate in the Norman Vexin, go up the valley of the Andelle and advance on Gisors, rammed beforehand by the Allies. The reprisals are current: with Charmont, peasants working with the fields, are shot by the Germans the August 21st 1944. Several memorials and war memorials are built.

The valley of the the Seine, and to a lesser extent, the valley of the Oise see developing urbanization of a suburban type starting from the Années 1920. The phenomenon of Rurbanisation causes an increase in population in certain villages, sometimes by the construction of allotments (Avernes, Vault-in-Vexin), well not very respectful of traditional architecture vexinoise. But for the unit, relatively isolated in the north-western quarter from the Ile-de-France, protected from the massive urbanization by the implementation of the new city of Cergy-Pontoise, which has in fact contributed to channel the urbanization, and by the weakness of the means of communication, the plate of the Vexin remains preserved urbanization in oil task of the Paris and its suburbs and constructions of great transportation routes. Indeed, no highway nor railway of importance crosses it.

The site of the plate of Vexin is protected by its classification in 1972 then by the institution from the Regional natural park from French Vexin in 1995.

Administrative organization

By keeping in mind the remarks relating to the fuzzier geographical limits of the north of Vexin, in Picardy, one can stop the figure of 167 communes vexinoises. They extend on two areas and three departments: in Ile-de-France the Yvelines (31 communes) and the Val-d'Oise (88 communes) and the Oise (47 communes) in Picardy.

Administratively, the territory recuts four district: the District of Pontoise (Val-d'Oise), the District of Mantes-the-Pretty (Yvelines), the District of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer (Yvelines) and the District of Beauvais (Oise). Being the cantons, French Vexin includes/understands whole or part of the following cantons:

In the Val-d'Oise: the Canton of Vigny (all 18 commune), the Canton of Magny-in-Vexin (all 26 commune), the Canton of Navy (all 19 commune), the Canton of the Valley of Sausseron (all 12 commune), the Canton of Hautil (5 communes out of 6, Neuville-on-Oise being located on left bank of the Oise), the Canton of Cergy-North (all 4 commune), the Canton of Cergy-South (compound of a fraction of Cergy, already entered commune, and of Eragny-on-Oise, out of the geographical perimeter), the Canton of Beaumont-on-Oise (2 communes on Right Bank of Oise, six others being on left bank or beyond the Esches), the Canton of Isle-Adam (only Parmain is located on Right Bank of Oise) and the Canton of Pontoise (which includes/understands only the éponyme city).
In Oise: the Canton of Méru (9 communes out of 20, entity being separate into two by the rivers borders of French Vexin), the Canton of Chaumont-in-Vexin (all 37 commune) and the Canton of Coudray-Saint-Germinating (only one of the 18 communes: Flavacourt)
In Yvelines: the Canton of Andrésy (three communes), the Canton of Poissy-North (only the commune of Carrières-sous-Poissy, located on Right Bank of the Seine) and the Canton of Triel-sur-Seine (only Triel-sur-Seine, located on Right Bank of the Seine) in the district of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer and the Canton of the Bonnières-on-Seine (three communes located on Right Bank of the Seine), the Canton of Limay (all 17 commune) and the Canton of Meulan (seven of the nine communes) in the district of Mantes-the-Pretty.

Inter-commune structures

Part of the communes of French Vexin gathered in communities of agglomeration or communes. It is about one, several or the whole of the communes of the following structures:

In the Val-d'Oise

the the Community of agglomeration of Cergy-Pontoise (nine of the twelve communes)
the the Community of communes of the Valley of Oise and the Three Forests (two of the seven communes)
the the Community of communes of the Valley of Oise and the impressionists (three of the six communes)
the the Community of common Valley of Viosne (all fourteen commune)
the the Community of communes of the Valley of Sausseron (all twelve commune)
the the Community of communes of the Three Valleys of Vexin (all twelve commune)
the the Community of communes of the Plate of Vexin (all eight commune)
the the Community of Vexin communes - Valley of the Seine (all eight commune)

In the Val-d'Oise, 20 communes of French Vexin remain isolated out of the existing inter-commune structures in 2007. It acts, in the canton of Magny-in-Vexin, of the 18 communes of: Aincourt, Ambleville, Arthies, Banthelu, Bray-and-Lu, Buhy, Charmont, Genainville, Hodent, Vault-in-Vexin, Magny-in-Vexin, Maudétour-in-Vexin, Montreuil-on-Epte, Omerville, Saint-Clearly-on-Epte, Saint-Cyr-in-Arthies, Saint-Gervais, Wy-known as-Pretty-Village. To also note the communes of Frouville (canton of the valley of Sausseron) and of Ronquerolles (canton of Beaumont-on-Oise).

In Yvelines

the the Community of communes the Vexin-Seine (all eight commune)
the the Community of agglomeration of Mantes-in-Yvelines (three of the twelve communes)
the the Community of communes of two banks of the Seine (four of the six communes)
the the Community of communes of the Doors of the Ile-de-France (two of the eight communes)

In Yvelines, 14 communes of French Vexin remain isolated out of the existing inter-commune structures in 2007. It is about Maurecourt (canton of Andrésy), of Fontenay-Saint-Father, Gargenville, Limay, Guernes, Guitrancourt, Issou, Lainville-in-Vexin, Montalet-the-Wood, Sailly, Saint-Martin-the-Garenne (canton of Limay), of Gaillon-on-Montcient, Évecquemont, Hardricourt (canton of Meulan)

In Oise

the the Community of communes of Fine sands (nine of the 21 communes)
the the Community of communes of Vexin Thelle (all 37 commune)
the the Community of communes of the Country of Bray (the only commune of Flavacourt, on 22 that account the structure)

It should be noted that no vexinoise commune of Picardy is isolated out of the existing communal structures in 2007.

Economy and regional natural park

For more detailed information on the park, to see the article Regional natural park of French Vexin

The majority of the still rural communes of French Vexin were constituted in regional natural park in 1995 whose seat is with Théméricourt. It counts 94 communes (77 in the Val-d'Oise and 17 in the Yvelines) and six city-doors. It extends on 680 km ² and counts 79.000 inhabitants. The communes of Picardy in the Département of Oise remained apart from the regional natural park, the joint management of a park by two areas (Île-de-France and Picardy), seeming, at the time, too complex. In the Val-d'Oise, two communes (Ambleville and Vault-in-Vexin) geographically intended to form part of it refused to enter the park during its creation.

In 2004, the territory of the natural park added up 13.497 employment in the private sector, including 11.056 in the Val-d'Oise and 2.441 in the Yvelines.

The credits of the area work primarily in the agglomeration of Cergy-Pontoise, then the valley of the the Seine (Mantes-the-Pretty, Mureaux), however, Marines, and especially Magny-in-Vexin offers many employment and a certain economic promptness. The credits working in French Vexin are located rather in the west of the territory.

Inheritance

The natural heritage

The natural zones of ecological, faunistic and floristic interest (ZNIEFF) account for 28,80% of the surface of the territory of the regional natural park, divided into eight great zones, that is to say approximately 1/5 of the territory of French Vexin.

French Vexin counts 10.000 hectares of wooded areas, mainly of oaks, chestnuts and charms, of which the Bois of the Tower of Lay, the Bois of Morval and the Bois of Chesnay.

French Vexin counts finally many protected wetlands.

The monumental inheritance

The inheritance of French Vexin is remarkably well preserved and, extremely fortunately, for its major part survived the destruction of the Révolution. The Industrial revolution and urbanization having only little touched the area, this rich person inheritance, so much monumental (Castle X, church S…) that Vernacular (laundrette S, cross of ways, firm S strengthened, dovecote S…) the classification of the plate in 1972 under the classified sites justified and the creation of a Regional natural park, born by ministerial decree in 1995. French Vexin does not count indeed less than 120 churches and 80 castles, partially or completely classified historic buildings.

Among the Vernacular inheritance most remarkable, one can quote:

strengthened farms of Nesles-the-Valley;
the dovecote S of Arthies, Maudétour-in-Vexin or Haravilliers;
laundrettes of Amenucourt, Gargenville, Jouy-le-Moutier, or Perchay;
the bridge of Aveny with Montreuil-on-Epte;
“boves” (troglodytic dwellings ) of High-Isle and the Rock-Guyon;
the sundial of the church of Commeny.

Tourism

The principal tourist sites of French Vexin are:

Auvers-sur-Oise, the village of the painters where Vincent van Gogh finishes her life, and which counts many places of visit: ;

the Castle of Auvers, which accommodates a course spectacle “Travels at the time of the impressionists”;
the Inn Ravoux, known as “house of Van-Gogh”;
the House of the doctor-Gachet;
the Museum Daubigny;
the House-workshop of Daubigny;
the Museum of the wormwood;

Pontoise, capital history of French Vexin, old city, medieval undergrounds opened with the visit, Museum Pissarro, Museum Tavet-Delacour…) ;
the castle and the village of the Rock-Guyon as well as the road of the peaks dominating the the Seine;
the field of Villarceaux (park of 63 ha managed by the District council of Ile-de-France and opened free to the visit);
the departmental archaeological Museum of the Val-d'Oise to Guiry-in-Vexin;
écomusée of French Vexin (Museum of French Vexin with Théméricourt, House of the harvest, House of the bread to Commeny, House of flour-milling to Valmondois and House of apple and the forgotten fruits with Saint-Clearly-on-Epte);
the Castle of Ambleville;
the castle of Boury-in-Vexin;
the troglodytic church of High-Isle;
the medieval village of Reilly.
the Castle of Jambville, property of the Scouts and Guides of France

See too

Notes, sources and references

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