Paleolithic artifacts were discovered by chance at Chelles by the pioneering nineteenth-century anthropologist Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet (1821–1898); he named the corresponding cultural stage of the Paleolithic after the commune: «Chellean» or «Chellian», nowadays known as «Oldowan».
As of 2016[update] the commune has 13,000 students in 46 public and private schools.[5] The commune includes 19 public preschools and 16 public elementary schools.[6]
There are also:
Four public junior high schools: Collège Beau soleil, Collège Corot, Collège de l'Europe, Collège Pierre Weczerka and Collège Simone Veil - Beau Soleil and de l'Europe have Enseignement Général Professionnel Adapté (S.E.G.P.A) programmes[7]
Three public senior high schools/sixth-form colleges, Lycée Gaston Bachelard, Lycée Professionnel Louis Lumière, and Lycée Jehan de Chelles[8]
One private school - Institution Gasnier Guy, with private preschool and elementary school (Gasnier Guy / Ste Bathilde), junior high school (Collège Gasnier Guy),[7] and senior high school (Lycée Gasnier Guy) divisions[8]
Chelles includes a library, Bibliothèque Olympe de Gouges, and a media centre, Médiathèque Jean-Pierre Vernant.[9]
Culture and recreation
The commune includes the Musée Alfred-Bonno.[10]
There is also a public swimming pool,[11] and a public skate park which opened in 1999.[12]
Chelles is twinned with the city of Lindau, Germany.
Gallery
Parc Emile Fouchard
Île Refuge, in the Marne river, is part of the Local Nature Reserve of the islands of Chelles
and on the Transilien Paris-Est suburban rail line 
.
