Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois

History
Inhabitants of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois are known as Génovéfains. There has been a settlement in what is now Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois since Roman times. In 1800 it was still a small settlement with around 100 inhabitants. After the armistice in 1918 the population was counted at less than 800. The boom started in the 1920s when inhabitants of Paris wanted affordable housing. This boom was in part because the railway station of Perray was built, connecting the town to Paris. The population at the moment is over 30.000 inhabitants, making it one of the larger settlements in the Essonne departement.

In 1926 the Château de la Cossonnerie was converted to a retirement home for White émigrés. It is locally known as the Maison Russe. It is still a retirement home but also a centre for Russian Culture.

Notable events
In 1963 Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, at more than 2 500 square meters the largest in France at the time. This store is still active.

Ilan Halimi, the young French Jew, who was kidnapped and tortured (leading to his eventual death) in 2006 by a group called the Gang of Barbarians, was found in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.

Tourism
Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois does not have an Office du Tourisme nor does the Mairie have tourist facilities. The town has set out a walking tour of the town taking in most of the important places in the town, taking in both the old and the new. Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois has a strong link with the Russian community living in France. The walk passes the Russian Necropolis, considered by some as the most important necropolis of Russian emigrants in the world.

The town offers limited cycling, horse-riding and walking facilities. There is a campsite in neighbouring Villiers-sur-Orge.

Sights
The architectural heritage of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is relatively varied and makes it possible to retrace the different periods of growth of the town.

Attractions include the Donjon, a park with animals, the town greenhouse, a grotto, and a Russian Necropolis. There are two main green spaces, the Bois des Trous and a parkland which borders on the river Orge (a tributary of the Seine). There are also some small parks.

The royal monuments: memory of the passage of the old royal road, two royal monuments marked with the fleur-de-lys are listed as historical monuments.

The castle of Sainte Geneviève-des-Bois: this royal road passed close to the old castle, of which only the fourteenth century keep, the outbuildings and the seventeenth century orangery remain today.

The Château du Parc Pierre which dates from the 19th century.

The 18th century Château de la Cossonnerie.

They complete the common heritage, consisting of the grotto of Sainte-Geneviève, built in the eighteenth century, the Sainte-Geneviève church built by the architect Constant Douillard, the former town hall-school of the nineteenth century, the town hall dating from from 1936 and the covered market decorated with bas-reliefs.

Finally, marking the Russian presence in the town, the ensemble made up of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Dormition church and the municipal cemetery of Liers have also been listed as historic monuments.
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