Bougival
Bougival is a suburban commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located 15.3 km west from the centre of Paris, on the left bank of the River Seine, on the departmental border with Hauts-de-Seine. In 2019, Bougival had a population of 8,790.
As the site where many of the Impressionists (including Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Auguste Renoir) painted country scenes along the Seine, the town today hosts a series of six historical placards, known as the "Impressionists Walk", at locations from which the noted painters depicted the scenes of Bougival.
Bougival is also noted as the site of the Machine de Marly, a sprawling, complicated hydraulic pumping device that began supplying the massive quantity of water required by the fountains at Palace of Versailles in the late 17th century. Considered one of the foremost engineering accomplishments of its era, the cacophonous, breakdown-prone apparatus comprised fourteen waterwheels (approximately 38 feet in diameter) driven by the current of the Seine — in turn powering more than 250 pumps, delivering water up a 500-foot vertical rise through a series of pumping stations, holding tanks, reservoirs, pipes and mechanical linkages. In use until 1817, the machine was subsequently updated, replaced with another pumping building in 1858 and finally replaced by an electrical generator in 1963. The building itself remained until 1968. Remnants are visible today at the riverbank.
In Bougival, Georges Bizet composed the opera Carmen at his home at Rue Ivan Tourguenievf on the Seine and noted Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev built a dacha, Les Frênes. A local monument commemorates the Montgolfier brothers, pioneers of flight, and the commune hosts the annual Festival of Bougival et des Coteaux de Seine.
In the 19th century, Bougival emerged as a fashionable suburb of Paris. Pauline Viardot had a villa there, as did her paramour Ivan Turgenev, who died in the town in 1883. Bougival was also known as the "Cradle of Impressionism" during the Belle Époque. Painters Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Sisley among others painted the light, sky, and water of this area. Alexandre Dumas, fils set parts of his novel The Lady of the Camellias in Bougival.
The Junior division of the British School of Paris (formerly the English School of Paris) was located in Bougival up until 2008. Prior to the English School, it was a Catholic all-girls school called Marymount in the 1960s. It was reported that the Germans occupied the estate during World War II, along with the nuns that lived there, due to the estate's vantage point of the Seine River. Rennequin Sualem
As the site where many of the Impressionists (including Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Auguste Renoir) painted country scenes along the Seine, the town today hosts a series of six historical placards, known as the "Impressionists Walk", at locations from which the noted painters depicted the scenes of Bougival.
Bougival is also noted as the site of the Machine de Marly, a sprawling, complicated hydraulic pumping device that began supplying the massive quantity of water required by the fountains at Palace of Versailles in the late 17th century. Considered one of the foremost engineering accomplishments of its era, the cacophonous, breakdown-prone apparatus comprised fourteen waterwheels (approximately 38 feet in diameter) driven by the current of the Seine — in turn powering more than 250 pumps, delivering water up a 500-foot vertical rise through a series of pumping stations, holding tanks, reservoirs, pipes and mechanical linkages. In use until 1817, the machine was subsequently updated, replaced with another pumping building in 1858 and finally replaced by an electrical generator in 1963. The building itself remained until 1968. Remnants are visible today at the riverbank.
In Bougival, Georges Bizet composed the opera Carmen at his home at Rue Ivan Tourguenievf on the Seine and noted Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev built a dacha, Les Frênes. A local monument commemorates the Montgolfier brothers, pioneers of flight, and the commune hosts the annual Festival of Bougival et des Coteaux de Seine.
In the 19th century, Bougival emerged as a fashionable suburb of Paris. Pauline Viardot had a villa there, as did her paramour Ivan Turgenev, who died in the town in 1883. Bougival was also known as the "Cradle of Impressionism" during the Belle Époque. Painters Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Sisley among others painted the light, sky, and water of this area. Alexandre Dumas, fils set parts of his novel The Lady of the Camellias in Bougival.
The Junior division of the British School of Paris (formerly the English School of Paris) was located in Bougival up until 2008. Prior to the English School, it was a Catholic all-girls school called Marymount in the 1960s. It was reported that the Germans occupied the estate during World War II, along with the nuns that lived there, due to the estate's vantage point of the Seine River. Rennequin Sualem
Map - Bougival
Map
Country - France
 |
 |
| Flag of France | |
Inhabited since the Palaeolithic era, the territory of Metropolitan France was settled by Celtic tribes known as Gauls during the Iron Age. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture that laid the foundation of the French language. The Germanic Franks formed the Kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France in 987. In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but highly decentralised feudal kingdom. Philip II successfully strengthened royal power and defeated his rivals to double the size of the crown lands; by the end of his reign, France had emerged as the most powerful state in Europe. From the mid-14th to the mid-15th century, France was plunged into a series of dynastic conflicts involving England, collectively known as the Hundred Years' War, and a distinct French identity emerged as a result. The French Renaissance saw art and culture flourish, conflict with the House of Habsburg, and the establishment of a global colonial empire, which by the 20th century would become the second-largest in the world. The second half of the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Huguenots that severely weakened the country. France again emerged as Europe's dominant power in the 17th century under Louis XIV following the Thirty Years' War. Inadequate economic policies, inequitable taxes and frequent wars (notably a defeat in the Seven Years' War and costly involvement in the American War of Independence) left the kingdom in a precarious economic situation by the end of the 18th century. This precipitated the French Revolution of 1789, which overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EU | Basque language |
| BR | Breton language |
| CA | Catalan language |
| CO | Corsican language |
| FR | French language |
| OC | Occitan language |