Val d'Europe

Val d'Europe (pronounced: [val døʁɔp]; lit. Valley of Europe) is a part of the new town known as Marne-la-Vallée. The final area of the district is currently in development. It is located around 35 km to the east of Paris, near Disneyland Paris. Val d'Europe was built in conjunction with The Walt Disney Company, who wished to create a town near the Disney resort.

Val d'Europe is made up of five communities, which have grouped together to form a town council. The five districts are:

The area is primarily given over to Disneyland Park, as per the contract between the government and The Walt Disney Company. One of the terms was that the Euro Disney Resort (now Disneyland Paris) immediately got 19.40 km² of land to build Festival Disney (now named Disney Village).

Euro Disney SCA is the only private company within France that has had such a large say in the development of an urban area of this scale. The government was represented by an EPA (governmental development company). Disney has also contributed to the development of the new town Marne-la-Vallée.

The building work started in 1987, after Jacques Chirac (then French prime minister) and Disney signed the contract. Val d'Europe was to be opened with the Euro Disney Resort in 1992. The villages of Bailly-Romainvilliers, Magny-le-Hongre and Serris were to be made into housing estates for the employees.

It was not until the start of 1998 that Val d'Europe saw the opening of its shopping centre, which included a hypermarket and boutiques. However, the garden centre (Delbard) was opened in 2004 in a building to the south of the shopping centre.

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Wikipedia