Cergy is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the "new town" of Cergy-Pontoise, created in the 1960s, of which it is the central and most populated commune. Although neighbouring Pontoise is the official préfecture of the Val-d'Oisedépartement, the préfecture building and administration, as well as the department council, are located inside the commune of Cergy, which is regarded as the de facto capital of Val-d'Oise. The sous-préfecture building and administration, on the other hand, are located inside the commune of Pontoise.
Name
The name Cergy comes from Medieval LatinSergiacum, meaning "estate of Sergius", a Gallo-Roman landowner.
Administration
Cergy is the chief town of two cantons: Cergy-1 and Cergy-2.
Cergy is also informally twinned with a village in Palestine and a village in Senegal.
Demographics
When Cergy was selected to become the center of a "new town", it was only a village. The commune had only 2,895 inhabitants in 1968. It then started to develop very quickly, exceeding 10,000 inhabitants in the mid-1970s and then 20,000 in the early-1980s. It is in this decade that its growth was most spectacular, since the city exceeded 48,000 inhabitants in 1990. The increase continued since, but at a notably slower pace, to reach 54,500 at 2004 estimates. However, on 1 January 2000, the commune lost a portion of its territory to the adjacent commune of Courdimanche. The official census figures have thus been revised downward from the 1999 official 54,781 to 54,719, and the land area from to 11.65 km2.
Immigration
Port Cergy
Port Cergy is a marina on the River Oise at :fr:Pk|pk 9. The site comprises both housing and recreational yachts as well as a boating school. The marina can hold 103 ships ranging 5 to 22m long and. The northern part of the site is reserved for restaurants and shops and have been built around a small bain.
Ham
is a small village to the south of Cergy. The village used to be part of the Sergentery and then commune of Neuville-sur-Oise but has since been amalgamated in the commune of Cergy. On its territory is the outdoor leisure centre 'Base de Loisirs de Cergy-Neuville'.
, École internationale des sciences du traitement de l'information
Security
Known as being a violent city in the past, with a criminal rate of 137.62 incidents per 1000 inhabitants, Cergy-Pontoise has experienced a significant decrease of violence in the past years. Reaching, in the year of 2008, a rate of 9,87 criminal incidents per 1000 inhabitants, which is still a high criminal rate.
The town was used as a filming location for Henri Verneuil's film I... comme Icare released in 1979, starring Yves Montand. The EDF-GDF tower designed by architect Renzo Moro is the building from which the shots were fired to assassinate president Marc Jarry. The country that the movie depicts is not named, although the United States is perhaps suggested. The filmmakers chose the modern and innovative architecture of the new city to avoid depicting any particular country. The town was also the location of the 1987 filmMy Girlfriend's Boyfriend directed by Eric Rohmer.
