Les Ulis () is a commune in the

Essonne Essonne () is a department in the southern part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659, across 194 communes.department, from the centre of Paris, France. A planned community, it comprises outer suburbs (

banlieue In France, a banlieue (; ) is a suburb of a large city, or all its suburbs taken collectively. Banlieues are divided into autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the city proper. For instance, 80percent of the inhabitant ...

s) built in the 1970s on the southwestern edge of the

Paris metropolitan area The Paris metropolitan area () is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Paris, France and its surrounding suburbs. Overview In 2020, France's national INSEE statistical bureau introduced the concept "ai ...

. In 2022, it had a population of 25,633.

Location

Les Ulis is a

new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

located in the

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...

, in the south-west of the Parisian agglomeration and in the north-west of the

Essonne Essonne () is a department in the southern part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659, across 194 communes.Yvette valley, also known as the Chevreuse valley. It is 23 km to the south-west of central Paris, 20 km north-west of Évry and 14 km to the south-east of

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

Geography

The town is laid out in the form of a U, approximately three kilometres by two kilometres, and covers 680

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s. Over 65% of the area is built-up, 17% is semi-rural and 16% is either rural or comprises communal green space. The French

Institut Géographique National An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

gives the co-ordinates of the town as 48°40'56" N and 02°10'03" E at the central point. The source of the minor river Rouillon (river) is in the neighbouring town of Villejust, close to the communal border. The lowest point of the town, at the point where it meets Bures-sur-Yvette, is at an altitude of 87 m. Most of the town is situated at an average altitude of over 150m. Its highest point is at 170m. The land on which it is built consists of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

and millstone. The town is divided into distinct neighbourhoods by the main roads running through it. To the east is a large industrial zone. To the west is the residential area, a large part of which consists of 33 HLM tower blocks, grouped into four neighbourhoods. The town was conceived and built in the 1970s according to the precepts of

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

by architects Robert Camelot, François Prieur and Georges-Henri Pingusson. Its tower blocks are raised on slabs so that they are accessed above street level by means of pedestrian walkways. The town incorporates a large urban park, to the north.

Transport

Line B of the RER runs through the Chevreuse and local bus services give access to the train stations at

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

and Bures-sur-Yvette. Les Ulis finds itself at a significant meeting point of motorways. The most significant of these, the route nationale 118, meets the route nationale 104 at an interchange on the communal border with the town of

Marcoussis Marcoussis () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Marcoussis is the location of the CNR (National Centre of Rugby) where the France national rugby u ...

History

The discovery in 1977 of

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

tools in the neighbouring town of Villejust suggests the possibility of pre-historic human occupation of the area that is today Les Ulis. During the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, villas rustica occupied the Courtabœuf plateau. One, the "Villa Bona" gives its name to nearby Villebon-sur-Yvette. A number were constructed by a property owner named ''Uslo'', whose name might conceivably be connected to that of Les Ulis. It is also possible that the name is related to the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

''usler'', meaning to raze by fire. The area was at one time wooded, but was cleared during the Middle Ages. The name "Ullys" is first recorded as that of a feudal Fee (feudal tenure), fee in a monastic inventory of 1382. In 1712, this land is recorded as belonging to Charles Boucher, an important Parisian civil servant. In 1767, it was transferred to Count Pierre Gaspard Marie Grimod d'Orsay. A significant farm of 160 hectares, the Grand Vivier, occupied much of the land. It raised cattle and sheep and cultivated wheat, potato, strawberry and beet. There was also a distillery on the land. The Ligne de Sceaux railway opened in 1867, passing just to the west of the present-day town. The development of the Courtabœuf industrial park was decided on in 1960, accompanied on 30 November that year by a decision to create a priority development zone for ten thousand homes to sit alongside it. 265 hectares of land comprising four farms, previously belonging to the communes of Bures-sur-Yvette and

, were set aside for this housing project. LesUlis1977

On 13 March 1964, an urban district of Bures-Orsay was established to oversee the development of the area. Road and utilities for the industrial zone were completed by July 1966, with the first business, AtoChem (part of what is now Total S.A.), moving in the following year.

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

created its French headquarters in the industrial zone in 1968. In the same year, the first residents moved into Les Ulis, although running water was not yet available in all homes. The first municipal council for Les Ulis was elected in 1971. In 1973, a shopping centre, ''Ulis 2'', was opened under the auspices of

Carrefour Carrefour Group, S.A. (, ), is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, Essonne, Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 ...

. A census of 1975 records 20,283 people living in Les Ulis. Because this was significantly greater than the populations of both Bures-sur-Yvette and Orsay, which shared administrative responsibility for the town, a local

plebiscite A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate (rather than their representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding (resulting in the adoption of a new policy) or adv ...

was held on 14 March 1976 to decide between three propositions: maintaining the status quo; creating a new commune comprising the three towns; creating a new commune for Les Ulis. Just over 50% of voters in Orsay and Bures-sur-Yvette favoured the last option, whereas a majority in Les Ulis favoured a commune comprising the three towns. Both municipal councils voted in favour of the creation of a new commune for Les Ulis. The

Prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

Essonne Essonne () is a department in the southern part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659, across 194 communes.hybrid library and a cultural centre, named after the writer

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of th ...

. In 1982, the population of Les Ulis was 28,223. In 1985, it became a canton.

Population

Inhabitants of Les Ulis are known as ''Ulissiens''.

Notable people

* Retired football player

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (; born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, sports broadcaster and former player. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time and widely regarded as the greatest player in Premi ...

, who played for the France national team, was born and raised in Les Ulis. * Manchester United football player Anthony Martial grew up in Les Ulis and played for the local football team CO Les Ulis as a child. *Football player Patrice Evra, who played for the France national team, was raised in Les Ulis. * The former spokesman of the ecological French party, Stéphane Pocrain, was raised in Les Ulis and was almost elected for the town's

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

(with the other towns of Gif-sur-Yvette,

etc...) in 2002. * supermodel Noémie Lenoir was born in Les Ulis before her family moved to a very quiet life first in Gif-sur-Yvette and then in

where she was discovered and started her career in modeling. * writer Patrick Lapeyre (author of the award-winning ''L'homme-sœur'') is a teacher in Les Ulis' high school (Lycée de l'Essouriau). * Rapper Sinik, was born central

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, moved to Les Ulis at age four. *Rappe
Gambino LaMG
was born and raised in Les Ulis. * Gilbert Bayiha N'Djema, footballer * Tristan Dingome, footballer * Moussa Marega, footballer * Abdoulaye Cissoko, footballer *Patrice Vigier, self-taught luthier and founder of Vigier Guitars, was originally from Les Ulis.

Economy

The biggest industrial area (

tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

) in Europe is concentrated in Parc d'Activité de Courtabœuf (area: 378 ha) with more than 1,000 companies employing 24,500 people. This area is spread over three communes: Les Ulis (mainly), Villebon-sur-Yvette and Villejust. Many companies such as

and

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

have their French head offices in this area.

Twin towns – sister cities

Les Ulis is twinned with: *

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

, Germany * Sátão, Portugal * Sédhiou, Senegal *

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...

, England, United Kingdom

References

External links

Official website
(in French)
Mayors of Essonne Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulis Communes of Essonne