Locations

Jouy is a direct translation of Latin gaudium, both meaning joy. Josas was the ancient name of an archdiaconate of the archbishop of Paris. Although many discoveries in various parts of the town attest to there once having been a Gallo-Roman presence there, the first traces of the construction of a village are of the ninth century. Stimulated by the presence of monks from the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, Jouy grew rapidly, but the population was progressively annihilated in the fourteenth century by a number of wars and epidemics. By 1466, there were only three houses left in the village.

From that date forward, Jouy became home to several aristocratic families. A number of seigneurs from Jouy had close relations with the kings: Antoine d'Aquin was the personal doctor to Louis XIV, and his grandson, Antoine-Louis de Rouillé, became Secretary of State of the Navy and Foreign Affairs under Louis XV.

In 1759, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, an entrepreneur of German origins, moved to Jouy-en-Josas and started a factory there, which produced toile de Jouy, a cotton fabric printed with isolated engraved vignettes of historical figures or landscapes, usually printed in red or green on white cotton. He became the town's first mayor in 1790. Industry started to wane in 1799 and even further in 1815, when Napoléon was toppled and Oberkampf died. Oberkampf's motto, 'Recte et Viligenter,' Latin for 'Uprightness and Vigilance,' was used by the commune for its coat of arms.