Plessis was first mentioned in 839 as Plessiacus apud Castanetum, meaning plessis near Castanetum. A plessis was a village surrounded by a fence made of branches. In 1112 the village church was founded, of which the romanesque tower still survives as the oldest monument of Le Plessis. At the end of the 12th the village was renamed Le Plessis-Raoul, after the local lord Raoul, chamberlain of king Philip II of France. In 1407 it came into the hands of Jean Piquet de La Haye, who built a castle in the village, now called Le Plessis-Piquet. In 1614 a monastery of the Congregation of the Feuillants was built in the village. In 1682 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Minister of Finances under Louis XIV had a pond dug which fed the fountains of the nearby Château de Sceaux. Pierre de Montesquiou d'Artagnan purchased the estate in 1699, and expanded the gardens. In 1790, as a result of the French Revolution, Antoine Moullé was elected the first mayor of Le Plessis. The commune was renamed Le Plessis-Liberté. The monastery was nationalised and demolished.[4]
The commune was renamed back to Le Plessis-Piquet in 1801.[5] In 1848, a guinguette (cabaret) was established in the area as a suite of interconnected tree houses. It was named Le grand Robinson after the tree house described in Swiss Family Robinson, a novel itself named after Robinson Crusoe. Several other popular establishments arose in the area and remained popular until the 1960s. In 1909, the commune of Le Plessis-Piquet was officially renamed Le Plessis-Robinson, after Le grand Robinson.[6] In 1854, Louis Hachette bought the castle and the grounds. He later became the mayor of Le Plessis-Piquet and a city councillor. The village and the castle were ruined in the Franco-Prussian War, but the castle was rebuilt by the Hachette family.[5]
Population
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1793
235
—
1800
267
+1.84%
1806
245
−1.42%
1821
199
−1.38%
1831
217
+0.87%
1836
201
−1.52%
1841
234
+3.09%
1846
192
−3.88%
1851
259
+6.17%
1856
271
+0.91%
1861
321
+3.44%
1866
338
+1.04%
1872
266
−3.91%
1876
326
+5.22%
1881
348
+1.31%
1886
407
+3.18%
1891
397
−0.50%
1896
475
+3.65%
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1901
549
+2.94%
1906
611
+2.16%
1911
686
+2.34%
1921
1,027
+4.12%
1926
2,299
+17.49%
1931
4,713
+15.44%
1936
7,779
+10.54%
1946
10,118
+2.66%
1954
13,163
+3.34%
1962
18,449
+4.31%
1968
22,590
+3.43%
1975
22,231
−0.23%
1982
21,271
−0.63%
1990
21,289
+0.01%
1999
21,618
+0.17%
2007
23,242
+0.91%
2012
28,673
+4.29%
2017
29,100
+0.30%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
In 2023 Le Plessis-Robinson is considered as the most significant project of New Urbanism in France. Philippe Pemezec, mayor between 1989 and 2018, started a project to reshape the city, in collaboration with the architects Marc & Nada Breitman, winners of the 2018 Driehaus Prize and part of the New Classical movement. Philippe Pemezec
Transport
Le Plessis-Robinson is not served by the Paris Métro, RER, or the suburban rail network. The closest station to Le Plessis-Robinson is Robinson station on Paris RER line B. This station is located in the neighbouring commune of Sceaux, 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from the town centre of Le Plessis-Robinson.
Education
Primary schools include two groups of nurseries and preschools, five standalone nurseries/preschools (maternelles), four standalone elementaries, and Ecole Raymond Aumont.[8]
