125-646: Levallois-Perret ( French pronunciation: [ləvalwa pɛʁɛ] ) is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department and Île-de-France region of north-central France. It lies on the right bank of the Seine , some 6 km (3.7 mi) from the centre of Paris in the north-western suburbs of the French capital. It is the most densely populated town in Europe and, together with neighbouring Neuilly-sur-Seine , one of
250-421: A "realm of 100,000 steeples". Parishes lacked the municipal structures of post-Revolution communes. Usually, one contained only a building committee ( conseil de fabrique ), made up of villagers, which managed the buildings of the parish church, the churchyard, and the other numerous church estates and properties, and sometimes also provided help for the poor, or even administered parish hospitals or schools. Since
375-463: A $ 16.9 billion offer, comprising a $ 13.5 billion value plus $ 3.4 billion cash. On 5 May, GE offered to buy one-fourth of the shares in Alstom's Indian power and distribution companies – Alstom T&D India and Alstom India – at 261.25 and 382.20 rupees a share (value US$ 278 million and $ 111 million respectively) subject to its bid for Alstom SA being successful. On 5 May 2014,
500-560: A 2003 deal in Indonesia valued at $ 118 million in particular. On April 13, 2013, Alstom senior executive Frédéric Pierucci was arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York . He was accused of willful blindness of his company's suspected corruption and was imprisoned in a high security facility for 14 months and denied release on bail until the week of Alstom's acquisition by
625-529: A 51% shareholding in Linke-Hofmann-Busch from Salzgitter AG . In 1995, the company acquired the remaining shares in the steam turbine manufacturer MAN Energie . In early 1998, GEC Alsthom acquired the electrical contractor Cegelec , renaming it Alstom Power Conversion . In 1998, GEC Alsthom bought Italian firm SASIB 's rail signalling subsidiary Sasib Railways , which included the former General Railway Signal (USA). In June 1998, GEC Alsthom
750-562: A better sense of the size of a typical mainland France commune than the average area since the average includes some very large communes. In Italy , the median area of communes ( comuni ) is 22 km (8.5 sq mi); in Belgium it is 40 km (15 sq mi); in Spain it is 35 km (14 sq mi); and in Germany , the majority of Länder have communes ( Gemeinden ) with
875-445: A category currently being phased out), made up of 33,327 communes (91.1 percent of all the communes of metropolitan France), and 52.86 million inhabitants, i.e., 86.7 percent of the population of metropolitan France. These impressive results however may hide a murkier reality. In rural areas, many communes have entered a community of communes only to benefit from government funds. Often the local syndicate has been turned officially into
1000-537: A community of communes, the new community of communes in fact managing only the services previously managed by the syndicate, contrary to the spirit of the law which has established the new intercommunal structures to carry out a much broader range of activities than that undertaken by the old syndicates. Some say that, should government money transfers be stopped, many of these communities of communes would revert to their former status of syndicate, or simply completely disappear in places where there were no syndicates prior to
1125-520: A consortium of Alstom ( Alstom Wind ), EDF , and DONG Energy was awarded three major French offshore wind farm contracts, the company initiated construction of factories at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (turbine blades in association with LM Power , also wind turbine towers) and Saint-Nazaire (Nacelles and generators). Also in 2012, the company formed a joint venture with RusHydro to manufacture hydropower equipment for small and medium power hydropower plants. (up to about 100MW.) Late in 2012, to further
1250-431: A county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: In metropolitan France , the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres (5.75 sq mi). The median area of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was even smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres (4.14 sq mi). The median area gives
1375-574: A density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last 10 years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: First, of the original 15 member states of the European Union there are approximately 75,000 communes; France alone, which comprises 16 percent of the population of the EU-15, had nearly half of its communes. Second,
SECTION 10
#17331059481771500-559: A design flaw inherited from the acquisition of ABB 's turbine business, in addition to losses in other business sectors. In 2014, General Electric (GE) announced that it reached a deal to purchase Alstom's power and grid divisions for US$ 17 billion (€12.4 billion). The deal came under heavy scrutiny from French regulators who saw the business as a strategically important domestic industry. To secure approval, GE agreed to form joint ventures with French companies in power generation and transmission, Alstom's heavy gas turbine business
1625-403: A further 10% stake from shareholder Bouygues and an option to form a rail transport joint venture. On 19 June, GE revised its bid, matching the same price with a lower cash transaction value; it also proposed forming a joint venture of their renewable, electric grid, steam turbine and nuclear power businesses. GE announced a memorandum of understanding between the two firms in the rail sector and
1750-588: A greater product overlap and thus a greater risk to jobs, along with potential issues with EU competition regulators. Siemens' offer was characterised as "defensive", being skeptically received by investors and analysts. On 29 April, Reuters reported that Alstom's board had accepted a €10 billion bid by GE for its energy division; In a letter from GE executive Jeffrey R. Immelt to President François Hollande published in Les Echos , Immelt gave assurances about continued investment in Alstom's French activities,
1875-415: A handful of inhabitants. Communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes ( "lieu dit" or "bourg" ), the difference residing in the lack of administrative powers. Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are
2000-463: A joint venture of Alstom and Gibela began construction of a new 60,000 square metres (650,000 sq ft) train building factory in Dunnotar , outside of Johannesburg , South Africa . Initial orders for the factory included 580 X'Trapolis Mega passenger trains for Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa under a €4 billion contract that was awarded in 2013. In September 2016, Alstom announced it
2125-756: A massive merger of communes, including by such distinguished voices as the president of the Cour des Comptes (the central auditing administrative body in France). In 1971 the Marcellin law offered support and money from the government to entice the communes to merge freely with each other, but the law had only a limited effect (only about 1,300 communes agreed to merge with others). Many rural communes with few residents struggle to maintain and manage basic services such as running water, garbage collection, or properly paved communal roads. Mergers, however, are not easy to achieve. One problem
2250-648: A median area above 15 km (5.8 sq mi). Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in
2375-546: A population nine times larger and a land area four times larger than Alsace, is divided into just 390 municipalities ( gemeenten ). Most of the communes in Alsace, along with those in other regions of France, have rejected the central government's calls for mergers and rationalization. By way of contrast, in the German states bordering Alsace, the geo-political and administrative areas have been subject to various re-organizations from
2500-473: A proposal to merge with Siemens Mobility , the rolling stock division of German conglomerate Siemens ; this merger was promoted as the creation of "a new European champion in the rail industry". The combined rail business, which was to have been reportedly named Siemens Alstom and headquartered in Paris, would have $ 18 billion U.S. in revenue and employ 62,300 people in more than 60 countries. During November 2018,
2625-591: A reported cost of €54 million. As a consequence of an alignment agreement between Transmashholding and another entity, LocoTech-Service , Alstom's stake in the former decreased to 20% in August 2018. In 2011, Alstom and the Iraqi government signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the construction of a new high-speed rail line between Baghdad and Basra . In 2012, Alstom opened construction of factories at Sorel-Tracy , Quebec, Canada (passenger rail vehicles). After
SECTION 20
#17331059481772750-550: A variant of their TGV family specially designed for traversing the Channel Tunnel between the UK and France. Although collectively operated by Eurostar , the type was ordered by three different railway companies: 16 by SNCF , four by NMBS/SNCB , and 18 by British Rail , of which seven were shortened North of London sets. The first Class 373 set was completed at GEC Alstom's Belfort facility during 1992. In 1994, GEC Alsthom acquired
2875-569: A wreath at the bottom around the shield and three castles topping the shield; both in yellow. VILLE DE / LEVALLOIS – PERRET, is inscribed in black letters above the coat of arms. A cartoon-style bee is used in the modern emblem of the municipality. Communes of France The commune ( French pronunciation: [kɔmyn] ) is a level of administrative division in the French Republic . French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in
3000-401: A €700 million deal), refocused on rail transport. Due to the acquisition, GE accrued $ 17.3bn of goodwill, consisting of Alstom's negative book value of $ 7.2bn at the time of acquisition and the $ 10.1bn purchase price. In October 2018, GE wrote-off $ 23bn from the value of its power industry division, largely attributed to the Alstom purchase. In November 2015, Alstom was awarded a contract by
3125-402: Is that mergers reduce the number of available elected positions, and thus are not popular with local politicians. Moreover, citizens from one village may be unwilling to have their local services run by an executive located in another village, whom they may consider unaware of or inattentive to their local needs. In December 2010 the law n° 2010-1563 regarding reform of territorial collectivities
3250-548: The Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations. From 1794 to 1977 — except for a few months in 1848 and 1870-1871 — Paris had no mayor and was thus directly controlled by the departmental prefect. This meant that Paris had less autonomy than certain towns or villages. Even after Paris regained
3375-452: The French : Constructions Électriques de France , Tarbes; a manufacturer of electric locomotives as well as electrical and hydraulic equipment. In 1969, Compagnie Générale d'Électricité (CGE) became the majority shareholder of Alsthom. In 1976, Alsthom merged with Chantiers de l'Atlantique , becoming Alsthom Atlantique. Thus, the business expanded into marine. The next year, it constructed
3500-549: The National Assembly ( Assemblée Nationale ) passed a law creating the commune, designed to be the lowest level of administrative division in France, thus endorsing these independently created communes, but also creating communes of its own. In this area as in many others, the work of the National Assembly was, properly speaking, revolutionary: not content with transforming all the chartered cities and towns into communes,
3625-477: The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 by Francis I , the priest in charge of the parish was also required to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. Except for these tasks, villages were left to handle other issues as they pleased. Typically, villagers would gather to decide over a special issue regarding the community, such as agricultural land usage, but there existed no permanent municipal body. In many places,
3750-728: The Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and Criminal Law Act 1977 . Further charges were brought in late 2014 by the SFO in relation to corrupt practices used to obtain energy contracts in Lithuania. Additional charges relating to contracts for the Budapest Metro in Hungary were added in April 2015. In December 2018, three executives of Alstom were found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt following an investigation by
3875-671: The United States , with a territory fourteen times larger than that of the French Republic, and nearly five times its population, had 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships at the 2002 Census of Governments, fewer than that of the French Republic. The number of barangays in the Philippines, villages of Indonesia, and muban in Thailand also have a higher number than the French communes. There have long been calls in France for
Levallois-Perret - Misplaced Pages Continue
4000-444: The mairies . These abrupt changes profoundly alienated devout Catholics, and France soon was plunged into the throes of civil war , with the fervently religious regions of western France at its center. It would take Napoleon I to re-establish peace in France, stabilize the new administrative system, and make it generally accepted by the population. Napoleon also abolished the election of the municipal councils, which now were chosen by
4125-491: The overseas departments , and 83 in the overseas collectivities and New Caledonia . This is a considerably higher total than that of any other European country , because French communes still largely reflect the division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution . (1) Within the current limits of metropolitan France, which existed between 1860 and 1871 and from 1919 to today. (2) Within
4250-702: The prefect , the local representative of the central government. Today, French communes are still very much the same in their general principles as those that were established at the beginning of the Revolution. The biggest changes occurred in 1831, when the French Parliament re-established the principle of the election of municipal councils, and in 1837 when French communes were given legal "personality", being now considered legal entities with legal capacity. The Jacobin revolutionaries were afraid of independent local powers, which they saw as conservative and opposed to
4375-552: The 1,067.2 kilometres (663.1 mi) from Calais to Marseille in 3 hours and 29 minutes. In 1986, Alsthom Belfort received an order from EDF for the largest gas turbine in the world (212 MW). In 1988–89, holding company CGEE Alsthom acquired ACEC Énergie (hydroturbines and electrical equipment for the nuclear industry) and ACEC Automatisme (automation) from the dissolution of Belgian electrical engineering company ACEC . Alsthom acquired 100% of ACEC's transport division, renaming it ACEC Transport . In early 1989, GEC Alsthom
4500-573: The 1960s onward. In the state of Baden-Württemberg , the number of Gemeinden or communities was reduced from 3,378 in 1968 to 1,108 in September 2007. In comparison, the number of communes in Alsace was only reduced from 946 in 1971 (just before the Marcellin law aimed at encouraging French communes to merge with each other was passed, see Current debate section below) to 904 in January 2007. Consequently,
4625-470: The 1990s, the company expanded its holdings in the rail sector, acquiring German rolling stock manufacturer Linke-Hofmann-Busch and Italian rail signaling specialist Sasib Railways. In 1998, GEC Alsthom was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and, later that year, it was rebranded Alstom. At the time, the company was manufacturing railway rolling stock, power generation equipment and ships. In 2003,
4750-408: The Alsace region—despite having a land area only one-fifth the size and a total population only one-sixth of that of its neighbor Baden-Württemberg—has almost as many municipalities. The small Alsace region has more than double the number of municipalities compared to the large and populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (396 Gemeinden in September 2007). Despite differences in population, each of
4875-669: The Belfort plant's closure in the short to medium term. In June 2017, Alstom opened the largest train modernisation facility in the UK at Halebank on the outskirts of Liverpool . Initial work involved the repainting of the Class 390 Pendolino s. On 12 November 2024, Alstom announced on their official website that the first of 35 fully automated metropolis trains has been delivered to Taiwan . The four-car stainless-steel train can carry up to 700 passengers, including 108 seated, with speeds up to 100 km/h. On 26 September 2017, Alstom announced
5000-569: The European Commission voiced its concerns surrounding the proposed merger of the two companies, particularly that the combined entity would be too dominant in the European market; alleged impacts from such dominance included potential increases in passenger fares and cargo fees. Furthermore, a series of popular protests concerning the financial reforms of both the French territorial railway infrastructure and SNCF occurred. The proposed merger
5125-419: The French government stated it did not back GE's bid, citing concerns on the future of Alstom's rail division as a smaller separate entity, suggesting that GE transfer its own rail division to Alstom; other concerns were over the civil nuclear field's national independence, and French jobs. On 14 May, France issued a decree ( Décret n° 2014-479 du 14 mai 2014 . ), nicknamed " décret Alstom ", extending to power of
Levallois-Perret - Misplaced Pages Continue
5250-507: The French government's 21% holding in Alstom for €2 billion. Later that year, Bouygues elected to increase its shareholding in the firm to 24%. In 2007, the TGV POS set the world speed record for rail vehicles of 574.8 kilometres per hour (357.2 mph). In March, Alstom acquired Power Systems Manufacturing LLC ( Florida , USA) a manufacturer of gas turbine components from Calpine Corporation for $ 242 million. In June, Alstom acquired
5375-516: The French population live in 57 percent of its communes, whilst 92 percent are concentrated in the remaining 43 percent. Alsace , with an area of 8,280 km (3,200 sq mi), and now part of the Région Grand Est, used to be the smallest of the regions of metropolitan France , and still has no fewer than 904 communes. This high number is typical of metropolitan France but is atypical when compared with other European countries. It shows
5500-752: The French state agreed terms with Bouygues, buying a 20% stake in Alstom from Bouygues at a 2–5% discount on a minimum value of ≈€35 per share. Initially, the acquisition was expected to be finalised by early 2015. In early 2015, the EU Competition Commission began examining the deal. Both EU and US competition regulators approved the deal by September 2015, subject to the divestiture of Alstom's large and very large gas turbine (GT26 and GT36 models) manufacturing and service business; and its GE7FA gas turbine aftermarket parts subsidiary business, Power Systems Mfg. LLC (PSM), to another company, Ansaldo Energia . The sale of Alstom's energy division to GE
5625-656: The Indian Railways to construct an electric locomotive factory in Madhepura ( Bihar ), receiving an initial order of 800 twin-section 9MW locomotives for use on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor , valued at ₹190 billion (about US$ 2.9 billion). This factory was to be operated under a joint venture with the Ministry of Railways (26%) at a cost of ₹ 13 billion (roughly US$ 200 million). In September 2015, it
5750-527: The NBA. LSC continues to operate teams in a wide variety of sports, but basketball is no longer among them. In 2007, the LSC basketball section merged with Paris Basket Racing , creating Paris-Levallois Basket, which after two name changes in the last half of the 2010s is now known as Metropolitans 92 . The traditional coat of arms for the municipality puts emphasis on the importance of industry in its history. The centre of
5875-558: The National Assembly also decided to turn all the village parishes into full-status communes. The Revolutionaries were inspired by Cartesian ideas as well as by the philosophy of the Enlightenment . They wanted to do away with all the peculiarities of the past and establish a perfect society, in which all and everything should be equal and set up according to reason, rather than by tradition or conservatism. Thus, they set out to establish administrative divisions that would be uniform across
6000-711: The PLM Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements : these are Paris, Marseille , and Lyon . The municipal arrondissement is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic but exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements : French communes are considered legal entities , whereas municipal arrondissements, by contrast, have no official capacity and no budget of their own. The rights and obligations of communes are governed by
6125-554: The SFO into allegations of several Lithuanian politicians and officials being offered bribes in return for securing contracts. In February 2020, the United Nations published a database of all business enterprises involved in certain specified activities related to the Israeli settlements . Alstom has been listed on the database in light of its involvement in activities related to "the provision of services and utilities supporting
6250-608: The Spanish wind turbine manufacturer Ecotècnia, renamed as Alstom Ecotècnia (since 2010 Alstom Wind ). The company also adopted a new graphic chart (logo, corporate identity) using "alstom" as its trading name, reserving "Alstom SA" for legal documents. In 2009, Alstom acquired a 25% stake in the Russian locomotive manufacturer Transmashholding . Six years later, Alstom decided to increase its shareholding in Transmashholding to 33% at
6375-757: The US conglomerate General Electric . In late 2014, Alstom was fined $ 772 million by the DOJ, and admitted guilt under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in relation to bribes paid to obtain contracts in various countries. In mid-2014, Alstom Network UK was charged by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in relation to corruption offences alleged to have been committed when obtaining transportation contracts in India, Poland and Tunisia, covered under sections 1 of
SECTION 50
#17331059481776500-705: The United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes . Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary widely in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris , to small hamlets with only
6625-584: The Village Levallois. In the 1860s, the village had grown to the point of forming a single built-up area and several requests were made to the authorities for the area to be incorporated as a commune. Eventually the requests were acceded to and on 30 June 1866 the commune of Levallois-Perret was eventually created by detaching that part of the territory of Clichy on which the Village Levallois stood and merging it with that part of Neuilly-sur-Seine occupied by Champerret. The Eiffel company had its factory in
6750-572: The administrative splitting of some communes . The median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with the lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may cover a smaller area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where
6875-411: The arms consists of a shield with red background; a yellow gearwheel in the bottom left and a yellow perfume diffuser in the top right represent the mechanical and perfume industries. Three red bees , are depicted on a silver bend from the top left to bottom right of the shield, these are another symbol of work in the city, beekeeping taking place at the île de la Jatte . The coat of arms also has
7000-535: The battery manufacturing industry, is also based in Levallois-Perret. Previously, Carrefour had its head office in Levallois-Perret. Public preschools and elementary schools: Public preschools: Public elementary schools: Private preschools and elementary schools: Junior high schools (public junior high schools are operated by the department of Hauts-de-Seine): Senior high schools/sixth-form colleges (public high schools/sixth-form colleges are operated by
7125-452: The benefit of poorer suburbs. Moreover, intercommunal structures in many urban areas are still new, and fragile: Tensions exist between communes; the city at the center of the urban area often is suspected of wishing to dominate the suburban communes; communes from opposing political sides also may be suspicious of each other. Two famous examples of this are Toulouse and Paris. In Toulouse, on top of there being six intercommunal structures,
7250-410: The chartered cities) suddenly became legal entities for the first time in their history. This is still the case today. During the revolution, approximately 41,000 communes were created, on territory corresponding to the limits of modern-day France (the 41,000 figure includes the communes of the departments of Savoie , Haute-Savoie and Alpes-Maritimes which were annexed in 1795, but does not include
7375-527: The city of Toulouse chartered by the counts of Toulouse). These cities were made up of several parishes (up to c. 50 parishes in the case of Paris), and they were usually enclosed by a defensive wall . They had been emancipated from the power of feudal lords in the 12th and 13th centuries, had municipal bodies which administered the city, and bore some resemblance with the communes that the French Revolution would establish except for two key points: In
7500-581: The commune, and it was therefore in Levallois-Perret that the structures of both the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower were built. Levallois-Perret became an important centre of the early French automotive industry with the establishment there of such companies as Clément-Bayard , Delage , and the coachbuilders Chapron and Faget & Varnet . Citroën purchased the Clément-Bayard factory and produced
7625-420: The communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ), which jointly manage the commune from the municipal hall ( mairie ), with exactly the same powers no matter the size of the commune. This uniformity of status is a legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences in status that existed in
SECTION 60
#17331059481777750-479: The company bought out ABB's share in the former joint venture ABB Alstom Power. In 2000, Alstom sold its diesel engine businesses ( Ruston , Paxman , and Mirrlees Blackstone ) to MAN Group . It also acquired a 51% stake in Italian rail manufacturer Fiat Ferroviaria , a world leader in tilting technology. In April 2003, Alstom sold its industrial turbine business to Siemens for €1.1 billion. By 2003, Alstom
7875-401: The company required a €3.2 billion bailout from the French government. As a result, Alstom was compelled to dispose of several of its divisions, including shipbuilding and electrical transmission to Areva , in order to comply with European Union rules on state aid . In 2004, Alstom remained in financial difficulties, having incurred massive unexpected costs (€4 billion) arising from
8000-680: The company signed a letter of agreement to purchase the transportation division of the financially struggling Bombardier Inc. The purchase was finalized in January 2021. Alsthom was founded in 1928 from the merger of French heavy engineering subsidiary of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company – the Compagnie Française Thomson Houston, CFTH – and the Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques . In 1932, Alsthom expanded into transportation by acquiring
8125-544: The country: the whole of France would be divided into départements , themselves divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons, themselves divided into communes, no exceptions. All of these communes would have equal status, they would all have a mayor at their head and a municipal council elected by the inhabitants of the commune. This was a real revolution for the thousands of villages that never had experienced organized municipal life before. A communal house had to be built in each of these villages, which would house
8250-458: The current extent of overseas France, which has remained unchanged since the independence of the New Hebrides in 1980. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes; even uninhabited mountains or rain forests are dependent on a commune for their administration. This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by
8375-460: The departments of modern-day Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine , which were part of France between 1795 and 1815). This was fewer than the 60,000 parishes that existed before the revolution (in cities and towns, parishes were merged into one single commune; in the countryside, some very small parishes were merged with bigger ones), but 41,000 was still a considerable number, without any comparison in
8500-703: The development of its tidal energy business, Alstom acquired Tidal Generation Ltd from Rolls-Royce , however this was later sold to GE in 2015 as part of the sale of Alstom's energy business. In November 2013, Alstom announced it planned to raise €1 to €2 billion through sale of some non-core assets, plus the possible sale of a stake in Alstom Transport, and cut 1,300 jobs. In 2014, Alstom sold its steam auxiliary components activities (air preheaters and gas-gas heaters for thermal power, other industrial heat transfer equipment, and grinding mills) to Triton Partners for €730 million. In November 2014 Alstom
8625-466: The diesel locomotive manufacturer Meinfesa to Vossloh , and Alstom Power Rentals to APR LLC. Six years later, Alstom re-acquired the electric power transmission division of Areva. In 2005, the former Metro-Cammell rail vehicle works in Washwood Heath closed. In the same year, Alstom sold its Australian subsidiary, Alstom Transport Australia and New Zealand, to United Group , which became part of
8750-486: The distinctive nature of the French commune as a geo-political or administrative entity. With its 904 communes, Alsace has three times as many municipalities as Sweden , which has a much larger territory covering 449,964 km (173,732 sq mi) and yet is divided into only 290 municipalities ( kommuner ). Alsace has more than double the total number of municipalities of the Netherlands which, in spite of having
8875-532: The end of the afternoon, following the storming of the Bastille , the provost of the merchants of Paris, Jacques de Flesselles was shot by the crowd on the steps of Paris City Hall. Although in the Middle Ages the provosts of the merchants symbolized the independence of Paris and even had openly rebelled against King Charles V , their office had been suppressed by the king, then reinstated but with strict control from
9000-446: The famous Citroën 2CV there for nearly forty years. Levallois-Perret was also an important centre of the cosmetics industry in the early 20th century. It is also home to the large European commercial real estate company Atisreal and to the conglomerate Alstom . The northern part of the famous Île de la Jatte , in the river Seine, is where French impressionist painters created many of their masterpieces. Patrick Balkany had been
9125-502: The first 1300 MW generator set for the Paluel Nuclear Power Plant , setting a world record with an output of 1500 MW. In 1978, Alsthom delivered its first TGV to SNCF . The TGV went on to break world rail speed records in 1981 (at 380 kilometres per hour (240 mph)) and in 1990 (at 515.3 kilometres per hour (320.2 mph)). It also set the world endurance record for high-speed train lines in 2001, travelling
9250-558: The form of a law on 22 March 1890, which provided for the establishment of single-purpose intercommunal associations. French lawmakers having long been aware of the inadequacy of the communal structure inherited from the French Revolution for dealing with a number of practical matters, the so-called Chevènement law of 12 July 1999 is the most recent and most thoroughgoing measure aimed at strengthening and simplifying this principle. In recent years it has become increasingly common for communes to band together in intercommunal consortia for
9375-416: The hamlet of Courcelles (or La Planchette). They now give their names to two Paris Métro stations. At the time of the creation of French communes during the French Revolution, they were part of the commune of Clichy , and the commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine extended over what is now the south-western part of Levallois-Perret. Landowner Jean-Jacques Perret initiated a number of housing developments in 1822 in
9500-548: The king, and so they had ended up being viewed by the people as yet another representative of the king, no longer the embodiment of a free municipality. Following that event, a "commune" of Paris was immediately set up to replace the old medieval chartered city of Paris, and a municipal guard was established to protect Paris against any attempt made by King Louis XVI to quell the ongoing revolution. Several other cities of France quickly followed suit, and communes arose everywhere, each with their municipal guard. On 14 December 1789,
9625-421: The kingdom of France. French law makes allowances for the vast differences in commune size in a number of areas of administrative law. The size of the municipal council, the method of electing the municipal council, the maximum allowable pay of the mayor and deputy mayors, and municipal campaign finance limits (among other features) all depend on the population echelon into which a particular commune falls. Since
9750-437: The kingdom. A parish was essentially a church, the houses around it (known as the village), and the cultivated land around the village. France was the most populous country in Europe at this time, with a population of approximately 25 million inhabitants in the late 18th century ( England in contrast had only 6 million inhabitants), which accounts for the large number of parishes. French kings often prided themselves on ruling over
9875-537: The latter's UGL Rail division. Alstom would restart its manufacturing operations in Australia by the early 2010s. In 2006, Alstom sold its Marine Division to the Norwegian group Aker Yards , with a commitment to retain 25% of the shares until 2010; it also sold Alstom Power Conversion, which became Converteam , in a leveraged buy-out deal funded by Barclays Private Equity France SAS. In June 2006, Bouygues acquired
10000-653: The law. In urban areas, the new intercommunal structures are much more a reality, being created by local decision-makers out of genuine belief in the worth of working together. However, in many places, local feuds have arisen, and it was not possible to set up an intercommunal structure for the whole of the urban area: some communes refusing to take part in it, or even creating their own structure. In some urban areas like Marseille there exist four distinct intercommunal structures! In many areas, rich communes have joined with other rich communes and have refused to let in poorer communes, for fear that their citizens would be overtaxed to
10125-552: The least money per inhabitant, whereas urban communities are given the most money per inhabitant, thus pushing communes to form more integrated communities where they have fewer powers, which they might otherwise have been loath to do if it were not for government money. The Chevènement law has been extremely successful in the sense that a majority of French communes now have joined the new intercommunal structures. On 1 January 2007, there were 2,573 such communities in metropolitan France (including five syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle ,
10250-414: The local feudal lord ( seigneur ) still had a major influence in the village's affairs, collecting taxes from tenant-villagers and ordering them to work the corvée , controlling which fields were to be used and when, and how much of the harvest should be given to him. Additionally, some cities had obtained charters during the Middle Ages, either from the king himself or from local counts or dukes (such as
10375-541: The lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials including a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ). They have extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune is the smallest and oldest administrative division in France . " Commune " in English has a historical association with socialist and collectivist political movements and philosophies. This association arises in part from
10500-480: The main community of Toulouse and its suburbs is only a community of agglomeration, although Toulouse is large enough to create an Urban Community according to the law. This is because the suburban communes refused an urban community for fear of losing too much power, and opted for a community of agglomeration, despite the fact that a community of agglomeration receives less government funds than an urban community. As for Paris, no intercommunal structure has emerged there,
10625-501: The maintenance and existence of settlements" and "the use of natural resources, in particular water and land , for business purposes". On 5 July 2021, Norway 's largest pension fund KLP said it would divest from Alstom together with 15 other business entities implicated in the UN report for their links to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. On 24 April 2014, unconfirmed reports claimed that US conglomerate General Electric (GE)
10750-554: The marine market. Alstom's share price had dropped by 90% over two years. European competition commission law required Alstom to sell several of its subsidiaries, including its shipbuilding and electrical transmission assets, when it accepted a €3.2 billion rescue plan involving the French state. In 2004, the French state took a 21% stake in Alstom for €772 million and Alstom received an EU-approved bailout worth in total €2.5 billion. The company sold its electrical transmission and distribution ("grid") activities to Areva ,
10875-526: The mayor of Levallois-Perret from 2001 until 2020. He was also mayor during the period 1983–95. The current mayor, elected in 2020, is Agnès Pottier-Dumas. An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. An immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants. Clockwise from
11000-486: The mayors. Civil marriages were established and started to be performed in the mairie with a ceremony not unlike the traditional one, with the mayor replacing the priest, and the name of the law replacing the name of God (" Au nom de la loi, je vous déclare unis par les liens du mariage. " – "In the name of the law, I declare you united by the bonds of marriage."). Priests were forced to surrender their centuries-old baptism, marriage, and burial books, which were deposited in
11125-429: The median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium (11,265 inhabitants), or even Spain (564 inhabitants). The median population given here should not hide the fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What
11250-427: The median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants, but there are also a small number of communes with much higher populations. In metropolitan France 57 percent of the 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants and, with 4,638,000 inhabitants, these smaller communes constitute just 7.7 percent of the total population. In other words, just 8 percent of
11375-425: The meetings of the municipal council as well as the administration of the commune. Some in the National Assembly were opposed to such a fragmentation of France into thousands of communes, but eventually Mirabeau and his ideas of one commune for each parish prevailed. On 20 September 1792, the recording of births, marriages, and deaths also was withdrawn as a responsibility of the priests of the parishes and handed to
11500-416: The most expensive suburbs of Paris. The name Levallois-Perret comes from two housing developments, Champerret (started by landowner Jean-Jacques Perret in 1822) and Village Levallois (founded by developer Nicolas-Eugène Levallois in 1845), which resulted in the incorporation of the commune. On the territory of what is now Levallois-Perret, before the French Revolution , stood the village of Villiers and
11625-521: The north, cities tended to be administered by échevins (from an old Germanic word meaning judge), while in the south, cities tended to be administered by consuls (in a clear reference to Roman antiquity), but Bordeaux was administered by jurats (etymologically meaning "sworn men") and Toulouse by capitouls ("men of the chapter"). Usually, there was no mayor in the modern sense; all the échevins or consuls were on equal footing, and rendered decisions collegially. However, for certain purposes, there
11750-411: The north: Levallois-Perret makes up the whole of the canton of Levallois-Perret . Alstom has its headquarters in Levallois-Perret. Speed Rabbit Pizza also has its headquarters in the commune. EVA Air has its Paris office in Levallois-Perret. According to Le Journal du Net , the debt per inhabitant of Levallois is 9,030 euros, the French record. Saft Groupe S.A. , a subsidiary of Total S.A. in
11875-460: The northeast of the commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine, in a place which soon came to be known as Champerret ("champ Perret": "Perret field") and would later give its name to a station on the Paris Métro. Later in 1845, Nicolas-Eugène Levallois began to develop housing on behalf of André Noël , who owned land near La Planchette (in the commune of Clichy). The land developed by Levallois soon became known as
12000-518: The number of communes in the process – the Gemeinden of West Germany were decreased from 24,400 to 8,400 in the space of a few years – France only carried out mergers at the margin, and those were mostly carried out during the 19th century. From 41,000 communes at the time of the French Revolution, the number decreased to 37,963 in 1921, to 36,569 in 2008 (in metropolitan France). Thus, in Europe, only Switzerland has as high
12125-625: The only partially successful statute enacted in 1966 and enabling urban communes to form urban communities or the more marked failure of the Marcellin law of 1971, the Chevènement law met with a large measure of success, so that a majority of French communes are now involved in intercommunal structures. There are two types of these structures: In exchange for the creation of a community, the government allocates money to them based on their population, thus providing an incentive for communes to team up and form communities. Communities of communes are given
12250-403: The place of the former communes, which are represented by a delegated mayor and a delegated council. Between 2012 and 2021, about 820 communes nouvelles have been established, replacing about 2,550 old communes. The expression "intercommunality" ( intercommunalité ) denotes several forms of cooperation between communes. Such cooperation first made its appearance at the end of the 19th century in
12375-442: The proposed merger with Siemens. On 6 February 2019, the planned merger between the two companies was vetoed by the European Commission. In response to this ruling, Alstom's Chief Executive Officer Henri Poupart-Lafarge stated that he viewed the decision to block the merger was a result of "ideological prejudices". In mid-February 2020, Alstom announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Agreement to buy Bombardier Transportation ,
12500-495: The provision of such services as refuse collection and water supply. Suburban communes often team up with the city at the core of their urban area to form a community charged with managing public transport or even administering the collection of local taxes. The Chevènement law tidied up all these practices, abolishing some structures and creating new ones. In addition, it offered central government finance aimed at encouraging further communes to join in intercommunal structures. Unlike
12625-489: The revolution, and so they favored a powerful central state. Therefore, when they created the communes, they deprived them of any legal "personality" (as they did with the départements ), with only the central state having legal "personality." By 1837 that situation was judged impractical, as mayors and municipal councils could not be parties in courts. The consequence of the change, however, was that tens of thousands of villages which had never had legal "personality" (contrary to
12750-417: The right to elect its own mayor in 1977, the central government retained control of the Paris police. In all other French communes, the municipal police are under the mayor's supervision. French communes were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789–1790. Before the revolution, France's lowest level of administrative division was the parish ( paroisse ), and there were up to 60,000 of them in
12875-712: The rising of the Paris Commune (1871) which could have more felicitously been called, in English, "the rising of the City of Paris". There is nothing intrinsically different between "town" in English and commune in French. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia , for a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis , 'things held in common'. As of January 2021, there were 35,083 communes in France , of which 34,836 were in metropolitan France , 129 in
13000-630: The sale of GE's rail signalling unit to Alstom. On 20 June, Siemens and MHI modified their bid, with MHI increasing its stake in Alstom's steam, hydro, and grid businesses to 40% in all three (total €3.9 billion) while Siemens increased its offer by €400 million to €4.3 billion. Subsequently, Economy minister Arnaud Montebourg stated he would block both bids, but the French government backed GE's offer and had given GE more specifications on commitments and guarantees; it also intended to buy two-thirds of Bouygues' shareholding (20%). The next day, Alstom's board backed GE's revised bid. On 22 June,
13125-406: The same as those designed at the time of the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, with the same limits. Countless rural communes that had hundreds of inhabitants at the time of the French Revolution now have only a hundred inhabitants or fewer. On the other hand, cities and towns have grown so much that their urbanized area is now extending far beyond the limits of their commune which were set at
13250-421: The security of the civil nuclear sector, and on job commitments made by Alstom Wind , whilst making its wind activities available to investors. On 30 April, Alstom confirmed that an offer for its power and grid divisions (representing an equity value of €12.35 billion, €11.4 billion enterprise value ) was under review with key interests including the French state. On 30 April, GE confirmed it had made
13375-762: The state to veto the takeover of "strategic interests" into areas of energy supply, water, transport, telecoms and public health. Both the French employer organisation MEDEF and the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services ( Michel Barnier ) responded negatively to the decree. On 16 June, Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) submitted a competing offer for Siemens to acquire Alstom's gas turbine activities for €3.9 billion while MHI would form joint ventures with Alstom, acquiring 40%, 20% and 20% stakes in Alstom's steam and nuclear, electrical grid, and hydroelectric businesses respectively, for €3.1 billion. The proposal included an offer to buy
13500-577: The suburbs of Paris fearing the concept of a "Greater Paris", and so disunity still is the rule in the metropolitan area, with the suburbs of Paris creating many different intercommunal structures all without the city. Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional and urban trains along with trams. The company and its name (originally spelled Alsthom)
13625-609: The time of the revolution. The most extreme example of this is Paris, where the urbanized area sprawls over 396 communes. Paris in fact was one of the very few communes of France whose limits were extended to take into account the expansion of the urbanized area. The new, larger, commune of Paris was set up under the oversight of Emperor Napoléon III in 1859, but after 1859 the limits of Paris rigidified. Unlike most other European countries, which stringently merged their communes to better reflect modern-day densities of population (such as Germany and Italy around 1970), dramatically decreasing
13750-399: The town. Levallois Sporting Club is one of the most important sports club in France with 14500 members. Among them you can find notable sportsperson like Teddy Riner , Gauthier Grumier and Gévrise Émane . During his youth Didier Drogba played for the football section, as Joakim Noah did in basketball before moving to the United States for high school and college play and eventually
13875-571: The world at the time, except in the empire of China (but there, only county level and above had any permanent administration). Since then, tremendous changes have affected France, as they have the rest of Europe: the Industrial Revolution , two world wars , and the rural exodus have all depopulated the countryside and increased the size of cities. French administrative divisions, however, have remained extremely rigid and unchanged. Today about 90 percent of communes and departments are exactly
14000-503: The Île-de-France region): Lycée Montalembert is in nearby Courbevoie Post-secondary: Levallois-Perret is served by three stations on Paris Métro Line 3 : Louise Michel , Anatole France , and Pont de Levallois – Bécon . It is also served by Clichy – Levallois station on the Transilien Paris ;– Saint-Lazare suburban rail line. The municipality of Levallois-Perret operates two free bus lines circulating
14125-428: Was adopted, which created the legal framework for the communes nouvelles (lit. "new communes"). A commune nouvelle can be created by merger of a number of communes at the request of the municipal councils of all the communes or at the initiative of the state representative in the department (the prefect ). The municipal council of the new commune can decide to create communes déléguées (lit. "delegated communes") in
14250-565: Was announced that Amtrak would award Alstom a contract for $ 2.5 billion for the next generation high-speed train sets for the Northeast Corridor . This would result in the creation of 750 jobs across upstate New York with 400 direct manufacturing jobs at Alstom. The order for 28 Avelia Liberty trainsets was officially confirmed in August 2016 by Amtrak. These trainsets are manufactured at Alstom's plant in Hornell, New York . In March 2016,
14375-591: Was awarded a $ 429.4 million contract to modernise 85 trains for the Mexico City Metro system. Starting in 2009, Alstom's practices were questioned by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), which violated the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act . This American law has extraterritorial scope. At the time, Alstom seemed to cooperate with the proceedings. In 2010, the DOJ opened an investigation into Alstom's commercial practices, focusing on
14500-401: Was facing a financial crisis caused by a mix of poor sales and over $ 5 billion of debt liabilities. It reportedly had the potential to force the company's liquidation. These heavy debts were largely due to a $ 4 billion charge over a design flaw in a turbine developed by ABB , acquired by Alstom in 2000, as well as the collapse of customer Renaissance Cruises amid a general downturn in
14625-500: Was finalised on 2 November 2015; the final valuation being €12.4 billion, of which €9.7 billion was transferred to Alstom, the remainder being reinvested in GE/Alstom joint ventures plus other corrections. The acquired businesses were reorganised within GE's existing power generation business ( GE Power & Water ) as GE Power . The remainder of Alstom Group, including GE Signalling (acquired via
14750-584: Was formed by a merger between the electric engineering division of Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (Als) and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (thom) in 1928. Significant acquisitions later included the Constructions Électriques de France (1932), shipbuilder Chantiers de l'Atlantique (1976), and parts of ACEC (late-1980s). A merger with parts of the British General Electric Company formed GEC Alsthom in 1989. Throughout
14875-535: Was formed from a 50–50 merger of Alsthom and the Power Systems Division of the British General Electric Company ; for Alsthom this move was intended to aid Alsthom in selling its products outside the French market. In May of that year GEC Alsthom bought British rail vehicle manufacturer Metro-Cammell . During the early-1990s, GEC Alsthom was the principal manufacturer of the British Rail Class 373 ,
15000-481: Was in acquisition talks with Alstom for $ 13 billion with the support of 29%-shareholder Bouygues, causing Alstom's share price to rise 18% in one day. On 27 April, Le Figaro reported that a rival 'cash plus asset swap' offer was issued by Siemens , trading Alstom's power business for part of its rail arm, plus a cash offer as good as GE's and job guarantees. Siemens' bid was reportedly promoted by French economic minister Arnaud Montebourg . Siemens and Alstom had
15125-486: Was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange ; both GEC and Alcatel elected to sell off part of their stakes (23.6% each). Around this time, the company was officially renamed Alstom . In 1999, Alstom bought half of ABB 's power systems division, forming a 50-50 joint company known as ABB Alstom Power. Alstom also bought Canada's Télécité, a passenger information and security solutions company, and sold its heavy-duty gas turbine business to General Electric . The next year,
15250-1013: Was one échevin or consul ranking above the others, a sort of mayor, although not with the same authority and executive powers as a modern mayor. This "mayor" was called provost of the merchants ( prévôt des marchands ) in Paris and Lyon; maire in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen , Orléans , Bayonne and many other cities and towns; mayeur in Lille ; premier capitoul in Toulouse; viguier in Montpellier ; premier consul in many towns of southern France; prêteur royal in Strasbourg ; maître échevin in Metz ; maire royal in Nancy ; or prévôt in Valenciennes . On 14 July 1789, at
15375-583: Was sold to Ansaldo Energia , and GE agreed to sell Alstom's rail signalling business. The deal was finalised in November 2015; since then, Alstom has been operating solely in the rail sector. In an attempt to grow its rail business, in late-2017, Alstom announced a proposed merger with Siemens Mobility . However, in February 2019, the European Commission prohibited the merger. Subsequently, in February 2020,
15500-524: Was to cease locomotive manufacturing at its Belfort (France) site by 2018 due to low orders; remaining production activity was to be transferred to its facility of Alstom DDF in Reichshoffen , Alsace . However, during October 2016, the French state placed an order of about €650 million for 15 TGV Euroduplex trains; an order for 20 locomotives; plus an order for 30 intercity trains to be built at Reichshoffen. Together, these orders were sufficient to prevent
15625-464: Was viewed by some as a measure to counter the rise of rival Chinese rail business CRRC ; it reportedly received support from many figures within both the French and German governments. The transaction, which was originally due to close by the end of 2018, was met with opposition by French trade union officials who voiced their concerns that such a merger would have the potential for job losses. On 17 July 2018, Alstom shareholders overwhelmingly approved
#176823