Antony, Hauts-de-Seine Département, Île-de-France Region, France

🇫🇷 Antony is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France, 11.3 km (7.0 mi) from the centre of Paris. Antony is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and the seat of the arrondissement of Antony.

Watered by the Bièvre, a tributary of the Seine, Antony is at the crossroads of important transport routes, especially the main north–south axis, which has existed for 2,000 years. Little urbanized until the early 20th century, the city grew considerably between the two wars, under Senator-Mayor Auguste Mounié, from 4,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. In the early 1960s the population quickly increased from 25,000 to 50,000 to accommodate repatriated people from Algeria. Now incorporated in the Paris Metropolitan Area, it is particularly strong in education, with one of the largest private institutions in France, and in health, with the largest private establishment in Île-de-France.

The commune has been awarded "two flowers" by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition for Cities and Villages in Bloom.

Location Antony is a city in the southern suburbs of Paris in the Hurepoix and is the chief town of the arrondissement of Hauts-de-Seine - 12.2 km south of Notre-Dame Cathedral. Its altitude is 48m above sea level at the lowest point at rue Gabriel Chamon in the Bièvre Valley and 100m at the highest point in the Avenue d'Estienne d'Orves on the border with Châtenay-Malabry. Antony is at the intersection of three departments: • Essonne, with the communes of Verrières-le-Buisson to the west, Wissous to the east, and Massy to the south; • Hauts-de-Seine, with the communes of Châtenay-Malabry to the west, Sceaux and Bourg-la-Reine to the north; • Val-de-Marne, with the communes of Fresnes and L'Haÿ-les-Roses to the east Antony is traversed by three rivers: the Bièvre River and its two tributaries, the Ruisseau des Godets and the Ruisseau de Rungis. One branch of the Bièvre upstream flows in the open through Heller Park in an area where the Bièvre is maintained by the Inter-communal association for development of the Bièvre Valley. From there it has been channeled and covered since the decision of the municipal council on 26 October 1950 nearly all the way to Paris. It then becomes part of the network of the Inter-departmental association for sanitation of the Paris agglomeration. Since the early 2000s, the restoration of the open air to the Bièvre at Antony and downstream has been envisaged. In 2003 this was done to Fresnes at the Pars des Prés on the edge of the La Fontaine district of Antony.

Antony is bisected by the South Parisian Green corridor which forms a portion of the via Turonensis: one of four paths in France for the pilgrimage to Saint Jacques de Compostela.

Geology and terrain The commune area is 956 hectares (2,362 acres) with the altitude varying between 45 and 103 m (148 and 338 ft).

The plateaux of Beauce ends in the north in an area crossed by small tributaries of the Seine. Antony is located in the extreme north-east of this area, called Hurepoix.

The crust of limestone of Beauce ends with a ledge at the edge of the Bois de Verrières. It covers a thick impermeable layer about 50 m (160 ft) thick of sand mixed with marl from Fontainebleau which is itself resting on layers of green marl in which there are some areas of gypsum then finally blue marl forming the bottom of the Bièvre valley. These green and blue marls form a completely waterproof layer about 10 m (33 ft) thick. These set the date of these layers to the Tertiary period when the sea occupying the centre of the Paris Basin began to retreat.

The old village of Antony is located on the green marl at the edge of the outcrop of the water table. It was in the gypsum layer that, in Antony in 1807, Georges Cuvier discovered the fossils of an extinct animal, one of the first to be scientifically recognised - in 1796 Cuvier had been one of first to argue species could become extinct. Naming it Anoplotherium commune, he described a mammalian ungulate herbivore with a long tail and the stature of a donkey or horse that lived 30 million years ago in the Late Eocene to the earliest Oligocene.

Development in the 20th century The first major development in Antony was performed under the guidance of its Senator-Mayor Augustus Mounié: the city went from 4,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. Elected mayor in 1912, he immediately attacked the problem of housing. Nicknamed in the newspaper "Le Père des mal-lotis" (The Father of the poor), he created more than forty associations of the poor to carry out sanitation of housing. He built schools, many roads, and installed street lighting.

In 1940 refugees flocking to the capital to go south. The mayor organised dormitories in schools and sought to supply the refugees by any means and 7,000 Antonians remained on site out of 19,000 inhabitants. Schools were emptied: students and teachers were first sent to Savigny-sur-Braye, then Saumur, and finally Bouille-Loretz. On 14 June 1940 the Germans come into town and used the stadium and the Jules Ferry school as places to hold 8,000 prisoners of war. Antony was the first city in the Seine department liberated by troops of the 2nd Armoured Division of General Leclerc on 24 August 1944.

The second development was a consequence of the very rapid housing construction in the early 1960s to accommodate the returnees from Algeria. Rapid urbanization led to the construction of small buildings but also low-rise apartments such as "The Grand L" famous for its interior corridors 174 m (571 ft) long and a height of 11 floors which was demolished in February 2001. In 20 years, from 1955 to 1975, the population increased from 24,512 to 57,795. During this period, the city built 11 nursery and primary schools, three colleges, a school, a large stadium, five school gyms with a sports centre, a sports park, two leisure centres, a swimming pool, a city hall, and thousands of units of social housing. The new city hall is a modern work by architect Georges Felus and was inaugurated on 19 June 1970.

The 1990s saw the reconstruction of the library in 1990, then in 1996 the fire station and the Conservatory of Music. The 2000s saw the end of the development work undertaken for nearly 40 years in the Croix-de-Berny quarter. This quarter, a strategic crossroads of communication (the A86, A6, A10, and near Orly Airport and RER B), near the Parc de Sceaux, was redeveloped to attract businesses and create jobs. It is predicted that 7,000 jobs will be created in this district.

Roads Antony is primarily served by the D920 road (formerly National Route 20) which passes along the entire length of the commune tracing the route of the Roman road via Aurelianensis which crossed Gaul from south to north coming from Spain and going to Cologne.

Crossing Antony from east to west is the A86 autoroute which, since 1996, follows the route of National Road RN186 which itself traced the route of the road opened by Louis XV. The A86 is heavily used by Parisians during peak hours in the morning and late afternoon. It is a way of avoiding Paris by a peripheral route. Though it replaced the function of the RN186, the latter was retained as an urban axis. Parts of the A86 are covered or are in a tunnel at Antony. Work began there more than thirty years ago and was completed by the end of the 2000s. Due to lack of funding, construction of the southern tunnel of the A86 has currently stopped at the RER bridge. The drilling of the section between the Sub-Prefecture building and the RER bridge is still under consideration by State services.

These roads have very high traffic (20,000 to 40,000 vehicles per day) and cause nuisance to local residents. It is expected that eventually the RD920 will be converted into an urban boulevard. Antony is also served by the A10 autoroute with an exit to join the RN20 and to enter through the south of the city.

Bicycle paths and pedestrian areas In November 1989 a bike path running through the city inside the Green Belt was built for a length of one kilometre (0.62 miles). Since 9 October 2005 it has been possible to cycle inside the Parc de Sceaux, an area dependent on Hauts-de-Seine department but partly in Antony.

Given the density of traffic and as intended by PLU, a coherent easy circulation network consisting of areas limited to 30 km/h and cycling paths primarily to schools and colleges was created. A zone limited to 30 km/h is linked to a zone limited to 10 km/h: in this area priority is given to pedestrians as shown in the photo below.

Expansion of areas limited to 30 km/h is underway in all areas of Antony with the aim of gradually moving the whole city to 30 km/h except for the RD920, for which a redevelopment project is proposed for the creation of cycle paths.

The 30 km/h (19 mph) zones were defined in 2009 and most of the 30 km/h roads are accessible in both directions for cyclists.

Communal Transport Antony is connected to the RER network through six stations: five stations on the RER Line B These are, from north to south: • Parc de Sceaux • La Croix de Berny • Antony • Fontaine Michalon • Les Baconnets.

The first three stations are in zone 3 for the navigo pass, the other two are in zone 4. Antony station is the most important and was completely rebuilt and returned to service in June 2002. It includes both the station for RER line B, the terminus for 13 bus routes and the terminal of Orlyval. A taxi rank and two bicycle parking garages are nearby. Approximately 25,000 passengers pass through this transport axis every day.

Chemin d'Antony A station on RER Line C in zone 4. Many bus routes connect Antony to Paris and neighbouring communes via bus networks in the Île-de-France: • 10 routes of RATP bus network: TVM, 119, 196, 197, 286, 297, 319, 379, 395, and 396; • 8 routes of the Paladin bus network: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12, and 13; • 2 routes of the Daniel Meyer bus network: DM151 and DM152; • 2 routes of Noctilien: N21 and N71 Since 21 July 2007 the city of Antony has been served by the Trans-Val-de-Marne (Tvm) through the RER station of La Croix de Berny. This rapid transit bus service has its own Bus lanes and links Antony to the Saint-Maur-Créteil railway station providing access to the limits of the region to the east such as Créteil, the Rungis International Market, The Belle Épine commercial centre, and Choisy-le-Roi. Planned for 2020, the Antony-Clamart Tramway will connect La Croix de Berny railway station to Clamart - Place du Garde.

Rail transport By RER Line B Antony is near Paris railway stations. Through Antony station the Gare du Nord and the Gare de Lyon can be reached in 28 minutes (direct connection to the RER) and the Gare Saint-Lazare railway station in 32 minutes. Antony is also very close to the Massy TGV railway station which can be reached in 5 minutes by RER. This station has the distinction of being both one of the new stations of Île-de-France served by inter-provincial TGV and also a new station for the LGV Atlantique radial line. Thus certain trains serve both the Paris-Montparnasse railway station and this station which makes it useful for going to Paris to take the TGV.

RER line C also passes through Antony (the Massy-Pontoise branch) but it is significantly underutilized as serving suburbs because of its simultaneous use as a connecting link for the TGV between the South-West network and the North network as well as having many heavy freight trains. Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) has proposed the creation of a third line on the right of way to facilitate the coexistence of three types of rail traffic, but in the absence of specific guarantees of soundproofing measures the project has been rejected both by the residents' associations and by the Antony council.

Air transport and airport access Antony is near Orly Airport. Since 2 October 1991 it can be reached in seven minutes by Orlyval, a narrow-gauge light railway of VAL type from the Antony RER B railway station. The use of this line is provided by RATP and it has special pricing that does not include it in the package for the Navigo pass.