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Commune of Meudon |
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| Location | |
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| Paris and inner ring départements | |
| Coordinates | 48°48′27″N 2°14′25″E / 48.8075°N 2.24028°E |
| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Region | Île-de-France |
| Department | Hauts-de-Seine |
| Arrondissement | Boulogne-Billancourt |
| Canton | Meudon |
| Intercommunality | Arc de Seine |
| Mayor | Hervé Marseille (2001–present) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 28–179 m (92–590 ft) (avg. 103 m/340 ft) |
| Land area1 | 9.90 km2 (3.82 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 44,200 (2005 [1]) |
| - Density | 4,465 /km2 (11,560 /sq mi) |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 92048/ 92190, 92360 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
Meudon is a municipality in the south-western suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the département of Hauts-de-Seine. It is located 9.1 km (5.7 mi) from the center of Paris.
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The town of Meudon is built on the hills and valleys of the Seine. The wood of Meudon lies for the most part to the west of the town. The northwest part of Meudon, overlooking the Seine, is known as Bellevue ("beautiful view").
At Meudon, the Argile Plastique clay was extensively mined in the 19th century. The first fossil of the European diatryma Gastornis parisiensis was discovered in these deposits by Gaston Planté.
Archaeological sites show that Meudon has been populated since Neolithic times.
The Gauls called the area Mol-Dum (sand dune), and the Romans Latinized the name as Moldunum.
The handsome Galliera Institutions, on the hill of Fleury, were founded by the duchess of Galliera for the care of aged persons and orphans. The buildings were completed in 1885.
The old castle of Meudon was rebuilt in Renaissance style in the mid-sixteenth century. It was bought by Louis XIV as a residence for Louis, le Grand Dauphin, under whom Meudon became a center of aristocratic life. After the death of le Grand Dauphin in 1711 the château was neglected, emptied in the Revolutionary sales, and finally burned at the close of the Franco-Prussian War, 1871, while it was occupied by Prussian soldiers. A branch of the Paris Observatory was founded in 1877 on the ruins. The Meudon town hall sits some 43m in altitude above that of Paris and the climb from there to the observatory offers some rewarding views of Paris.
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, the inventor of the 'world's first automobile', is reported to have carried out some early trials at Meudon in the early 1770s.
Chalais-Meudon was important in the pioneering of aviation, initially balloons and airships, but also the early powered craft. 'Hangar Y' (at 48°47′52″N 2°13′59″E / 48.7977°N 2.233°E) was built in 1880 on request of the military engineer Captain Charles Renard (1847-1905), for the construction of balloons and airships. The building is 70 meters long, 24 meters wide and around 26 meters high. The airship 'La France', designed by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs, was built in Hangar Y in 1884 and was the first airship which was controllable during flight and which could return to its starting point.[2]
Although a choice residential district, access to the railway (RER) and the Seine River have made Meudon a manufacturing center since the 1840s. Metal products and military explosives have been continuously produced here since then.
In addition to the Observatory, what is today ONERA, a national research institute on aerospace topics (and wind tunnels), has been present since the military opened its aerostatic (lighter-than-air) field in the Chalais park in 1877. From 1921 to 1981 the Air Museum was located here until it moved to Le Bourget Airport.
CNRS has a campus in Bellevue.
Meudon is served by Meudon – Val Fleury station on Paris RER line C.
Meudon is also served by two stations on the Transilien Paris – Montparnasse suburban rail line: Meudon and Bellevue.
Finally Meudon is served by the Meudon-sur-Seine station on the Paris tramway line T2
Meudon is twinned with:
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MEUDON, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, 6 m. E. of Versailles by rail and about 2-1-- m. S.W. of Paris. Pop. (1906), 9597. The remains of a castle (17th century) burned during the siege of Paris in 1871 have since been adapted as an observatory. Its terrace commands a fine view of Paris. The handsome Galliera Institutions, on the hill of Fleury, were founded by the duchess of Galliera for the reception of aged persons and orphans. The buildings were completed in 1885, at a cost of X560,000. The town has a monument of Rabelais, who was cure there in 1553, and manufactures munitions of war for the artillery, and in the neighbouring park of Chalais is the Government military ballooning establishment. In the 16th century the cardinal, Charles of Lorraine, built at Meudon a magnificent château, which was destroyed in 1803. The present remains belong to a building erected by the dauphin, son of Louis XIV. The wood of Meudon lies for the most part to the west of the town.
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