Ile Seguin - Des Renault et des hommes

Seguin Island is a symbolic place, linked to Renault and its men. However, history widens the gaze to discover an island with many faces. First without a factory, the island is enjoying peaceful times. Having become the place of passage between Paris and Versailles, at the time of the court of Louis XIV, it was transformed during the Revolution to accommodate modern activities, where tanners took over from launderers. It was at the beginning of the 20th century that the island was transformed into a high place, thanks to the conquest of Louis Renault. Man built one of the most modern industrial facilities of his time there, giving birth to Seguin the American. From 1929 to 1992, the island became the factory-ship, built around workshops as stretched as they were elevated. For more than sixty years, Seguin has been the symbol of French automobile factories. This is where the pre-war Mona, Juva and Celta are assembled, then the 4 CV and 4L, symbols of Reconstruction and the Thirty Glorious Years. But the place quickly exceeds its activity. The story appears in Seguin, making everyone say "When Renault sneezes, the whole of France catches a cold". The place breathes history, from the Popular Front to May 68. The crisis of the 1980s, which weakened the entire automobile industry, threw the island into doubt. This is then tossed between the Billancourt 2000 project and a surprise renovation, which allows the production of the Express. The island is already turning the page. Renault left Seguin in 1992, inducing a flood of questions with complex answers, like a turn of the century when economics intersected with politics. Around a place and in a few pages, this history of Ile Seguin takes the reader to the heart of the economic and social history of France.