Last modified: 2010-11-12 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Rocquencourt]](../images/f/fr-78-ro.gif)
Municipal flag of Rocquencourt - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 27 June 2005
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The municipality of Rocquencourt (3,251 inhabitants in 1999) is located
north-west of Versailles. It is mostly known for the "Rocquencourt
triangle", which is the junction of the two highways A12 and A13 and
the place of a very "popular" traffic jam in the west of Paris.
Rocquencourt is member of the Communauté de communes du Grand Parc,
which includes the municipalities of Buc, Bièvres, Les Loges-en-Josas,
Jouy-en-Josas, Fontenay-le-Fleury, Rocquencourt, Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole,
Toussus-le-Noble, Viroflay and Versailles.
Rocquencourt was named after its first lord, Roccon (Rocconis Curtum),
who was a patrice (higher dignitary) of King of Neustria Thierry III
(673 and 675-690 or 691). Thierry III was the son of Clovis II; he was
overthrown by his brother Childeric II, King of Austrasia in 673,
reconquered his throne in 675 and was defeated in Tertry (c. 687) by
Pepin d'Herstal.
The domain of Rocquencourt was given by Thierry III to the abbey of St.
Germain l'Auxerrois in Paris in 678. A few years later, Abbot Landebert
exchanged the domain with the abbey of St. Denis.
On 1 July 1815, Napoléon I's Grande Armée fought its last battle in
Rocquencourt and the neighbouring municipality of Le Chesnay. After the
defeat of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, Grouchy's army withdrew to France
via Namur and Dinant. The army, including some 28,000 able soldiers,
1,000 casualties and 100 cannons entered Paris on 29 June, a few days
before the Prussians. The Brits and the Dutch stayed near Senlis.
Napoléon abdicated on 22 June; on 29 June, he was supposed to surrender
to the Brits but he donned his Colonel's uniform and proposed to the
provisory government to command the army for the last time. He probably
believed he would be able to turn the situation round. However, nobody
listened to him and he had to leave the castle of Malmaison in civilian
clothes; Prussian cavalrymen arrived a few hours too late to arrest
him.
The provisory government led by Fouché appointed Davout General in
Chief. The French troops concentrated in Paris had as many soldiers as
the invaders and much more cannons. Moreover, the Prussians and the
Anglo-Dutch troops were separated. Davout sent to Wellington and
Blücher a proposal of armistice but asked Exelmans to muster the
cavalry located on the left bank of the Seine and to march against the
Prussians, who stayed in Versailles. Exelmans ordered the Piré division
to rush to Rocquencourt via Sèvres and Vaucresson in order to block the
Prussian line of retreat and commanded himself the central column made
of two dragoons' divisions, which rushed straight to Versailles via
Plessis-Piquet and Vélizy. The Prussian hussars left Versailles for
Plessis-Piquet and were repelled by the French dragoons in Vélizy. They
withdrew to Versailles but could not enter the city because of the
dragoons chasing them. On their way to Saint-Germain, their first
squadron was shot at the entrance of Rocquencourt by Piré's infantrymen
hidden in the fields. The Prussian general von Sohr ordered his men to
escape through the fields but was himself injured, captured and brought
back to Paris. The Prussians were blocked into a small, narrow street
in Le Chesnay and attempted to hide in the yard of the Poupinet farm,
where all of them were killed or captured. However, the main body of
the Prussian army rushed to Saint-Germain; Exelmans resisted until the
next day and withdrew to Paris with 437 prisoners and several horses. A
few days later, Exelmans attempted to avoid the capitulation of the
French army, to no avail. Exelmans was confered the title of Marshal
of France in 1851 and died the next year after a horse fall.
The national arboretum of Chèvreloup is located on the municipal territory of Rocquencourt. It was set up in 1927 in a former part of the park of the palace of Versailles and is managed by the National Museum of Natural History. It is used as an annex of the Jardin des Plantes, located in the center of Paris. Its oldest tree is a Japanese sophora planted under King Louis XV. Chèvreloup is mostly known for its collection of conifers, including some weird-shaped trees obtained by breeding.
Rocquencourt houses the oldest of the six campuses of Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA), a state agency founded in 1967 as Institut de recherche d'informatique et d'automatique (IRIA). INRIA is run by the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Industry. It is specialized in the sciences and technologies of communication and information (STIC). INRIA employs in Rocquencourt 480, including 299 scientists working in 41 research teams. INRIA manages AFNIC, the French TLD Internet registry.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 27 June 2005
The new city hall of Rocquencourt was inaugurated in February 2005. Pictures of the ceremony available on the municipal website show the municipal flag, which is white with the municipal coat of arms.
The municipal coat of arms of Rocquencourt is D'azur à trois fleurs de lis d'or, au chef aussi d'or, chargé d'un roc
de gueules mouvant de la partition ("Azure three fleurs-de-lis or a chief of the same a rock gules").
These arms were designed by Robert Louis after a municipal seal used in
1790, whose cast is kept in the National Archives. They were adopted by
the Municipal Council on 2 July 1956 and officially registered in the
Armorial of the Cities of the Department of Seine-et-Oise (the
forerunner of the department of Yvelines).
The arms are canting (rock); the fleurs-de-lis recall that
Rocquencourt is located close to the royal town of Versailles.
Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 27 June 2005