Sarcelles, Administrative division in Val-d'Oise, France.
Sarcelles is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department north of Paris, serving as its own canton. It spreads across residential neighborhoods with tower blocks, public facilities and green spaces along small waterways.
The settlement existed as a farming village in medieval times and grew rapidly from the 1950s with the construction of large housing estates. This urban planning still shapes the structure and density of buildings today.
The name comes from the Latin Sartellae, referring to early agricultural clearing. Today immigrants from Africa and Asia run shops, cafés and markets that shape everyday street life throughout the area.
The train station connects the commune with Paris and neighboring towns through regional trains and bus lines. Shops and public services are concentrated in the center around the market square.
In the 1960s the first French large housing estates were built here with up to 12,000 apartments in a single neighborhood, considered an urban planning experiment at the time. Many tower blocks still display the numbers of their original construction phases on the facades.
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