Sarcelles is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 16.3 km from the centre of Paris. Sarcelles is a sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise department and the seat of the arrondissement of Sarcelles. In the south of the commune, during the 1950s and 1960s, vast housing estates were built in order to accommodate pieds-noirs and Jews who had left Algeria due to its war of independence.