Gagny

Gagny, town, a northeastern suburb of Paris, Seine–Saint-Denis département, Île-de-France région, north-central France. Gagny was the embarkation point for the “taxis of the Marne,” a fleet of Parisian taxicabs requisitioned by French Gen. Joseph-Simon Gallieni that transported some 6,000 infantrymen to reinforce the French and British offensive at the First Battle of the Marne during World War I. Historically, the manufacture of plaster and of electric carillons was important to the local economy. By the early 21st century, however, most heavy industry had been supplanted by the service sector. Gagny’s proximity to Disneyland Resort Paris spurred the growth of the tourism sector in the 1990s, and the town’s appearance in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables (1862) drew crowds on the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth in 2002. Pop. (1999) 36,715; (2014 est.) 39,195.