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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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15ème Arrondissement, Paris

The 15th arrondissement of Paris (XV arrondissement) is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as le quinzième ("the fifteenth").

The 15th arrondissement, called Vaugirard, is situated on the left bank of the River Seine. Sharing the Montparnasse district with the 6th and 14th arrondissements, it is the city's most populous arrondissement, with a population of 229,472 as of 2020. Tour Montparnasse – the tallest skyscraper in Paris – and the neighbouring Gare Montparnasse are both located in the 15th arrondissement, at its border with the 14th.

It is also home to the high-rise Beaugrenelle district and the Front de Seine riverside development, as well as the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles convention centre, where the 180-metre Tour Triangle is set to house a 120-room hotel and 70,000 square metres of office space in 2026. Close is the Héliport de Paris, the city heliport, just nearby the border with Issy-les-Moulineaux.

History

The loi du 16 juin 1859 decreed the annexation to Paris of the area between the old Wall of the Ferme générale and the Wall of Thiers. The communes of Grenelle, Vaugirard and Javel were incorporated into Paris in 1860.

Politician Charles Michels (born 1903) was elected a deputy for the 15th arrondissement under the Popular Front; he was taken hostage and shot by the Nazis in 1941. A Métro station and street now bear his name.

Quarters

As in all the Parisian arrondissements, the fifteenth is made up of four administrative quarters (quartiers).

The four administrative quarters of the 15th arrondissement.
  • To the south, quartier Saint-Lambert occupies the former site of the village of Vaugirard, built along an ancient Roman road. The geography of the area was particularly suited to wine-making, as well as quarrying. In fact, many Parisian monuments, such as the École Militaire, were built from Vaugirard stone. The village, not yet being part of Paris, was considered by Parisians to be an agreeable suburb, pleasant for country walks or its cabarets and puppet shows. In 1860 Vaugirard was annexed to Paris, along with adjoining villages. Today, notable attractions in this area include the Parc des Expositions (an exhibition centre which hosts the Foire de Paris, agricultural expositions, in addition to car shows) and Parc Georges-Brassens, a park built on the former site of a slaughterhouse where every year wine by the name of Clos des Morillons is produced and auctioned at the civic centre.
  • To the east, quartier Necker was originally an uninhabited space between Paris and Vaugirard. The most well-known landmarks in the area are the Gare Montparnasse train station and the looming Tour Montparnasse office tower. The area around the train station has been renovated and now contains a number of office and apartment blocks, a park (the Jardin Atlantique, built directly over the train tracks), and a shopping centre. Finally, the quartier contains a number of public buildings: the Lycée Buffon, the Necker Children's Hospital, as well as the private foundation Pasteur Institute.
  • To the north, quartier Grenelle was originally a village of the same name. Grenelle plain extended from the current Hôtel des Invalides to the suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux on the other side of the Seine, but remained mostly uninhabited in centuries past due to difficulties farming the land. At the beginning of the 19th century, an entrepreneur by the name of Violet divided off a section of the plain: this became the village of Beaugrenelle, known for its series of straight streets and blocks, which remain today. The whole area broke off from the commune of Vaugirard in 1830, becoming the commune of Grenelle, which was in turn annexed to Paris in 1860. A century later, a number of apartment and office towers were built along the Seine, the Front de Seine along with the Beaugrenelle shopping mall.
  • To the west, quartier Javel lies to the south of Grenelle plain. In years past, it was the industrial area of the arrondissement: first with chemical companies (the famous Eau de Javel [bleach] was invented and produced there), then electrical companies (Thomson), and finally car manufacturers (Citroën), whose factories occupied a large part of the quartier up until the early 1970s. The industrial areas have since been rehabilitated; the neighbourhood now contains Parc André-Citroën, Georges Pompidou European Hospital, and a number of large office buildings and television studios (Sagem, Snecma, the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile, StudioCanal, France Télévisions, etc.). In addition, to the south of the circular highway (boulevard périphérique), an extension of the 15th, formerly an aerodrome at the beginning of the 20th century, is now a heliport, a gym and a recreation centre.
Musée Pasteur

The early airfield here has been encroached upon by urban development and a sports centre, but the residual area, mainly laid to grass, continues to serve Paris as a heliport. The Sécurité Civile has a detachment there close to maintenance facilities. Customs facilities are available and especially busy during the Salon d'Aeronautique airshows held at Le Bourget on the other side of the city.

Geography

Mairie du XV arrondissement near Vaugirard Métro station

The 15th arrondissement is located in the southwestern part of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. It includes one of the three islands in Paris, the Île aux Cygnes (Isle of the Swans), on the border with the 16th arrondissement. It also borders the 6th, 7th and 14th arrondissements.

At 8.5 km (3.3 sq mi), it is the third-largest arrondissement in Paris; it would be the largest if the large parks Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were not counted as part of the 16th and 12th arrondissements, respectively.

Demographics

Historical population

Year
(of French censuses)
Population Density
(inh. per km)
1872 75,449 8,874
1954 250,124 29,419
1962 (peak of population) 250,551 29,470
1968 244,080 28,709
1975 231,301 27,205
1982 225,596 26,534
1990 223,940 26,340
1999 225,362 26,507
2009 236,491 27,888

Places of interest

La musique (Musée Bourdelle)

Government and infrastructure

Economy

Art Nouveau building, detailed view

Education and research

Panthéon-Assas University – Vaugirard

Notable people

Brigitte Bardot – 1962
Louis Pasteur by Félix Nadar in 1878

See also

References

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  22. ^ Mlekuz, Nathalie (2 April 1997). "Air France vole vers ses avions, destination Roissy". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 22 September 2009.
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Further reading