Yvelines (Department, France)

Last modified: 2005-12-24 by ivan sache
Keywords: yvelines | ile-de-france | general council | tree | heart (red) |
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No information is available on the flag of the department.

• Administrative data
• Former flag of the General Council

See also:

• France
• France: Metropolitan departments
• Clickable map of France (departments)
• Yvelines (Department, France): Municipal flags
  • Versailles
  • Beynes
  • Elancourt
  • Maisons-Laffitte
  • Maurecourt
  • Mézy-sur-Seine
  • Montesson
  • Montigny-le-Bretonneux
  • Rambouillet
  • Rocquencourt
  • Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole
  • Saint-Lambert
  • Sartrouville
  • Thiverval-Grignon
  • Vélizy-Villacoublay
  • Verneuil-sur-Seine
  • Le Vésinet
• Yvelines (Department, France): Yacht clubs

Administrative data

Code: 78
Region: Ile-de-France
Traditional provinces: Ile-de-France, Orléanais
Bordering departments: Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-d'Oise

Area: 2,284 km²
Population (1995): 1,367,700 inhabitants

Préfecture: Versailles
Sous-préfectures: Mantes-la-Jolie, Rambouillet, Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Subdivisions: 4 arrondissements, 39 cantons, 262 communes.

In the Middle Ages, the big forest located in the south of Paris was called silva equalina, aquilina, evelina, acquilina... The main remains of this forest are the forests of Fontainebleau, Rambouillet and Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
The word aquilina comes from Latin aqua, water. The forest was watered by several rivers and was rich in sources, marshes and ponds.

A law passed on 10 July 1964 created the department of Yvelines, carved from the former department of Seine-et-Oise. The new department came into real existence on 1 January 1968.
General de Gaulle wanted to name the new department Versailles. The National Assembly rejected this proposal, as well as the name of Val de Seine. In 1962, the poet Jehan Despert, born in Versailles in 1921, proposed to add an S to the name of the legendary forest. The new name was adopted by the National Assembly upon proposal by Jean-Paul Palewski, Deputy and President of the General Council of Seine-et-Oise.
In November 1997, the place des Yvelines - Jehan Despert was inaugurated in the ville nouvelle of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. The square is located on the municipalities of Guyancourt and Montigny-le-Bretonneux. The poet attended the inauguration ceremony.

Ivan Sache, 11 September 2004

Former flag of the General Council

Former flag of the General Council of Yvelines - Image by Philippe-Pierre Darras