GAGNY:

Gagny is located at the north-east of Paris but it has kept a provincial charm. Gagny is full of history, of green spaces with flower beds and is a very dynamic city.

GAGNY : a city of history

Nobody can deny the historical context of Gagny.. once an old farm or a stronghold from the Gallo-Roman era Gagny until the nineteenth century remained a rural hamlet managed by peasants and wine-growers.

Like in most of the villages of the “ Pays de France “ region, the aristocracy had mansions and manors built. Today some vestiges of the glorious past can still be admired. The current town-hall, a mansion from 1755, the Montguichet and Maison Blanche castles are riches Gagny can boast of. The old Baschet property, a Norman half- timbered mansion, carrying the director’s name of one of the most famous illustrated magazines at the beginning of the twentieth century, called “ l’Illustration” is also part of this rich city heritage which is ours.

In 1849, with the building of the railways between Paris and Meaux (a city in the neighbouring county) a great number of people began to flow to Gagny, and that phenomenon intensified in the 1930s. A lot of Parisians have so far fled the capital to live in our town and important housing estates have been created in 7 districts: l’Epoque , les Floralies , Maison Blanche, Maison Rouge , le Chenay, les Abbesses et le Centre – 7 villages – and Gagny despite its 37, 000 inhabitants, has known how to keep their charm within a city.

Undoubtedly Gagny has been a historic city since the first World War. The name of our city is forever linked to the great story of “the Marne taxis”. The “Big Square”, today “the Foch Square” was the starting point of the famous convoy led by General Gallieni on September 6 1914.



GAGNY : a city full of green spaces and flower beds

Gagny displays a great number of green spaces in a pleasant and peaceful environment. The Courbet park stretches over 33,000sq metres covered with vast lawns and a lush vegetation: a perfect place for long walks.

The Maison Blanche lake, on which each year in June a great party is organised, reminds you of the charms of the country.

Gagny is a green city as well as a city in bloom. Every year in France a competition between different cities happens and is aimed at having the blooming quality of these towns assessed by independent judges. In 2002 for the first time Gagny was awarded. Our efforts over only four years were rewarded and today Gagny is “a city in bloom with four flowers”, the mark of an outstanding blooming and the highest distinction in this competition.

This pleasant setting we are proud of has already kept the attention of the highest responsible for the environment in our country. Actually, as part of another competition” the great prize of environment for the towns in the Ile de France region, in 2000 and 2001 Gagny won the special prize of the jury. Last but not least, in 2002 Gagny was rewarded and received the label “thank you the planet says” given by the French Ministry of the territory development and the environment.

The protection of the environment is a great priority at Gagny. A writer of ours, Saint – Exupéry, perfectly summed up our concern when he said: “we don’t inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”.


GAGNY : a dynamic city

Today Gagny can display a lot of cultural activities as well as sporting or associative ones, supported by a network of businesses on the large and small scale.


A strong cultural activity :
With 700seats the Andre Malraux theatre can propose a great variety of performances, classical music , varieties, operas, but also movies just after their national release.

The Georges Perec library houses 70,000 books but to face the third millennium, it has invested a lot in multimedia equipment, so our city is ready for the twenty-first century and is quietly looking at the future.

The third cultural centre of our city is the François Gossec academy with three departments: music, dance and plastic arts. No fewer than 32 topics are taught ranging from the study of all the music instruments or the choral song to the teaching of the classic or jazz dance via the learning of the different techniques in painting and carving.


An important associative sector :
The Gagny associations amount to about 300 and include all disciplines: arts, sports, leisure, health, veterans and they are very active in the city life.

To cite only the most remarkable, the COMMITTE OF THE TWIN CITIES manages all the partnerships with the different twin cities in Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Denmark .

The municipal sports association, founded more than a century ago, runs nineteen sports sections as far various as fencing, volley-ball, judo, archery.

The “Clos des collines” association aims at protecting the vineyard of our city which is composed of 405 Chardonnay and Gamay plants producing every year 300 bottles of a little dry white wine tasted or bought during our traditional “Fete of the wine harvest” in October.


An active economic centre :
Within our city 300 shopkeepers on the large or small scale contribute to the bustle of the city. Every year selling of second-hand goods, promotional weeks, annual sales , regular recreation are organised by them.

The proximity of several highways, of Charles de Gaulle Airport, the launching of a special inter-city train in 1999 connecting our city directly to Paris has contributed to attract many high-tech companies, small providers, small and medium sized companies and today some are set up in Gagny.