ARGENTEUIL

town, Val-d'Oise dpartement, Paris rgion, France. It lies along the north bank of the Seine River, northwest of Paris. The town's name comes from silver (argent) deposits exploited there by the Gauls. The town grew up around a convent that was founded there in the 7th century and of which Charlemagne's daughter Thorade may have been an early abbess. Hlose, of the tragic Hlose-Abelard romance, became prioress of the convent about 1118, but she was expelled in 1129 and the convent was made into a monastery. Enshrined in the monastery's Church of Saint-Denis is the putative seamless robe of Christ, which was given to the convent by Charlemagne after he had received it from the Byzantine empress Irene. Heavy industry (machinery, aluminum, and aeronautical engineering) and suburban housing have almost completely obliterated the vineyards and asparagus fields that once surrounded Argenteuil. Pop. (1990) 94,162.