|
Red Star FC 93 - where do they come from ? Unusually for a French football club, the name does not give any real indication as to the whereabouts of this famous club, with an English name. Sometimes (mistakenly) called Red Star Paris, the club plays in the northern working-class suburb of Saint-Ouen, just the other side of the Periph' motorway which encircles the French capital. The Tourism Office of the town offer this description of Saint-Ouen.
HISTORY OF SAINT-OUEN
Saint-Ouen, a town on the right bank of the Seine bordering Paris with a population of 40,000 inhabitants, is known for its 'Flea Market' attended by tens of thousands of people every week.
But these age-old markets should not lead visitors to forget the rich diversity of Saint-Ouen's thousand-year-old history..
The existence in the early Middle Ages of a royal villa, followed by a village, is born out by documentary evidence.
The town derives its name from that of AUDOENUS DADO Bishop of Rouen (641), known to history as OUEN and beatified by the Church. A chapel erected on the site of his death (683) was the origin of a village listed among the assets of the Abbey of Saint-Denis in 832.
In 1285, Charles de Valois, the brother of king Philippe IV (Philippe the Fair), owned a manor at Saint-Ouen in which, in 1351, king Jean II (Jean the Good) inaugurated France's first order of chivalry, the ORDRE DE L'ETOILE (the Order of the Star).
After the devastations of the Hundred Years War and then the Wars of Religion, the lord of the village in the XVIIth century was Seiglières de Boisfranc, who commissioned the architect Le Pautre to build a château in the classical style.
In the XVIIIth century, the château was variously owned by the Ducs de Gesvres, the Marquise de Pompadour and the Duc de Nivernais.
The village's population of 700 made their living mainly from growing cereals, grapes or asparagus, or worked in the homes of the Maréchal de Soubise or Necker the banker.
In 1814, after the abdication of Napoleon I, Louis XVIII on his return from exile signed in the château the 'Declaration of Saint-Ouen', which established the Restoration. He then acquired the property, demolished the château and commissioned the architect J.J.M Huvé to build a residence in Palladian style, which he presented to his favourite, the Comtesse du Cayla.
In 1830, a financial company opened a canal with wharves and docks, and this was to prove the beginning of a rapid process of industrialisation.
In 70 years, Saint-Ouen grew from 980 inhabitants in 1830 to 35,000 in 1900, a population of mainly manual workers.
After the First World War, during which Saint-Ouen lost 2238 soldiers either killed or missing, a large number of companies set up in the town: Citroën, Wonder, Martini, Thomson-Houston among others.
During the Second World War, hundreds of its people were deported for racial or political reasons and members of the Resistance were shot. The town was damaged by the bombing in the spring and summer of 1944 which claimed 400 lives.
Over more recent years the town has seen considerable changes. The old XIXth century districts have given way to social housing in the context of urban development, and sporting, cultural and social amenities have been created.
But de-industrialisation has imposed changes on the town's economic life. The industrial town has expanded with Sony, L'Oréal, S.V.P, the headquarters of Citroën, Alstom, Baccardi-Martini and the publishing group Aujourd'hui-Le Parisien. 1500 hotel rooms are available in a very large number of hotels.
Since 1961, Saint-Ouen has signed twinning agreements with TERNI (Italy), SALFORD (United Kingdom), ROUSSE (Bulgaria) and PODOLSK (Russia) to promote regular exchanges
The Flea Market is the world's leading antiques market and one of the Paris region's most important tourist attractions. Its7 hectares and 2500 shops are a astonishing. From old furniture to the most unusual items imaginable, the Flea Market is a delight to bargain hunters and to people who love strolling around in unusual settings.
This is more than just a market, it is a place where different civilisations, tendencies and interests intermingle and where the ambiance and atmosphere remain to this day with equal.
The Flea Market have today been classified, as a Historic Monument, as an architectural and urban conservation area, France's first such area to be so listed for its atmosphere.
|