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Home > Travel France > France Destinations > Mantes la Jolie
Mantes-la-Jolie
France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and comprises various overseas islands and territories which are located in other regions. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. At 674,843 square kilometres, France is the world's 40th-largest country after Myanmar. France is a member of The European Union and Paris is the capital of this nation. The sole official language of France is French. Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, migrations, and invasions.
Mantes-la-Jolie is a community in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 48.4 kilometers from the center of Paris. Mantes-la-Jolie is a sous-prefecture of the Yvelines departement, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Mantes-la-Jolie. Mantes was half way between the centres of power of the dukes of Normandy at Rouen and the kings of France at Paris. Along with most of northern France, it changed hands regularly in the Hundred Years' War.
Initially called Mantes-sur-Seine, Mantes merged with the community of Gassicourt in 1930 and the community born of the merger was called Mantes-Gassicourt. Mantes were the location of the first allied bridgehead across the Seine on August 9, 1944, by General Patton's 3rd Army. Major rebuilding was needed after the war. On May 7, 1953, the community of Mantes-Gassicourt was officially renamed Mantes-la-Jolie.
A Mantes today has light industry, focused on cement and chemicals, but is inevitably drawn into the economic orbit of nearby Paris. Louis XIV instituted the manufacture of musical instruments in Mantes, and it was selected as the centre of brass and woodwind instrument manufacture. In the 19th century, painters were attracted to the town, mainly Corot, whose paintings of the bridge and the cathedral are celebrated. Mantes-la-Jolie is an attractive city with natural beauty and historical places, while traveling in France.
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