Gif-sur-Yvette: history and sights
Served by: RER B.
Did you know?
Gif, attested in the 9th century as Gito, is an obscure, probably pre-Celtic name; the Yvette means 'little water'. The present name dates from 1932. The Benedictine abbey of Val-de-Gif is recorded from the 12th century.
Anecdote
In 1972 the former home of the painter Fernand Léger in Gif hosted Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ for negotiations leading to the Paris Peace Accords on Vietnam.
Around Gif-sur-Yvette
- Église Saint-Rémi, 500 m away — The old village church beside the Yvette, with roots in the early Middle Ages; restored in 1985.
- Château de Button, 550 m away — A château completed in 1771 for Claude Mérault, now occupied by CNRS laboratories.
- Château de Belleville, 2400 m away — A 17th-century château built for the Parisian bourgeois Gilles de Trapu, turned into an agricultural school in 1922.