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51-670: The peninsula lies wholly within the department of Manche , in the region of Normandy. The Cotentin peninsula is part of the Armorican Massif (with the exception of the Plain lying in the Paris Basin) and lies between the estuary of the Vire river and Mont Saint-Michel Bay. It is divided into three areas: the headland of Cap de la Hague , the Cotentin Pass (the Plain ), and the valley of

102-456: A county of the United States . At the 2001 census, the median population of a department in continental France was 511,000 inhabitants, which is 21 times the median population of a United States county, but less than two-thirds of the median population of a ceremonial county of England and Wales. Most of the departments have an area of between 4,000 and 8,000 km (1500 to 3000 sq. mi.), and

153-610: A house" (modern -toft ), -bec (Bricquebec, Houlbec..) from bekkr "brook", "stream", etc. In 1088 Robert Curthose , Duke of Normandy, enfeoffed the Cotentin to his brother Henry , who later became king of England. Henry, as count of the Cotentin, established his first power base there and in the adjoining Avranchin, which lay to the south, beyond the River Thar . During the Hundred Years War , King Edward III of England landed in

204-495: A more uniform division into departments ( département ) and districts in late 1789. The process began on 4 August 1789 with the elimination of provincial privileges, and a 22 December 1789 decree (with letters patent in January 1790) provided for the termination of the provincial governments. The modern department system, as all-purpose units of the government, was decreed on 26 February 1790 (with letters patent on 4 March 1790) by

255-509: A population between 320,000 and 1 million. The largest in area is Gironde (10,000 km (3,900 sq mi).), while the smallest is the city of Paris (105 km (41 sq mi).). The most populous is Nord (2,550,000) and the least populous is Lozère (74,000). The departments are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in postal codes , in INSEE codes (including "social security numbers") and on vehicle number plates . Initially

306-405: A president. Their main areas of responsibility include the management of a number of social and welfare allowances, of junior high school ( collège ) buildings and technical staff, and local roads and school and rural buses, and a contribution to municipal infrastructures. Local services of the state administration are traditionally organised at departmental level, where the prefect represents

357-668: A substantial portion of jobs in the region. The roads used for transport of nuclear waste have been blocked many times in the past by environmental action group Greenpeace . Local environmental groups have voiced concerns about the radioactivity levels of the cooling water at both these nuclear sites, which is being flushed into the bay of Vauville; however, the emitted radioactivity is several orders of magnitude below natural background levels and does not pose any hazard. There are two major naval shipyards in Cherbourg. The state-owned shipyard Naval Group has built French nuclear submarines since

408-399: A three-digit number. The number is used, for example, in the postal code and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates . Residents commonly use the numbers to refer to their own department or a neighbouring one, for example inhabitants of Loiret may refer to their department as "the 45". More distant departments are generally referred to by their names, as few people know

459-547: Is a commune in the department of Manche , northwestern France . The municipality was established on 1 January 2017 by merger of the former communes of Beaumont-Hague (the seat), Acqueville , Auderville , Biville , Branville-Hague , Digulleville , Éculleville , Flottemanville-Hague , Gréville-Hague , Herqueville , Jobourg , Omonville-la-Petite , Omonville-la-Rogue , Sainte-Croix-Hague , Saint-Germain-des-Vaux , Tonneville , Urville-Nacqueville , Vasteville and Vauville . This Manche geographical article

510-401: Is a museum of oceanic and underseas subjects. The main attraction is Redoutable , the first French nuclear submarine, launched in 1967. After quitting political life, the political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) retreated to the family estate of Tocqueville , where he wrote much of his work. Due to its comparative isolation, the peninsula is one of the remaining strongholds of

561-525: Is commonly associated, though not all are officially recognised or used. Unlike the rest of the French possessions in Africa , Algeria was divided into departments just like Corsica or Normandy from 1848 until its independence in 1962. These departments were supposed to be "assimilated" or "integrated" to France sometime in the future. There are a number of former departments in territories conquered by France during

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612-411: Is known as the prefecture ( préfecture ) or chef-lieu de département and is generally a town of some importance roughly at the geographical centre of the department. This was determined according to the time taken to travel on horseback from the periphery of the department. The goal was for the prefecture to be accessible on horseback from any town in the department within 24 hours. The prefecture

663-555: Is not necessarily the largest city in the department: for instance, in Saône-et-Loire department the capital is Mâcon , but the largest city is Chalon-sur-Saône . Departments may be divided into arrondissements . The capital of an arrondissement is called a subprefecture ( sous-préfecture ) or chef-lieu d'arrondissement . Each department is administered by a departmental council ( conseil départemental ), an assembly elected for six years by universal suffrage , with

714-629: The Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Highways) infrastructure administration. Before the French Revolution , France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the end of the Ancien Régime it was organised into provinces . During the Revolution they were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. The National Constituent Assembly decided to create

765-651: The 1823 French intervention ending the trienio liberal ) and the 1833 territorial division of Spain , which forms the basis of the present day Provinces of Spain with minor modifications, are also based on the French model of departments of roughly equal size. Most French departments are assigned a two-digit number, the Official Geographical Code, allocated by the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques ( Insée ). Overseas departments have

816-865: The Douve . King Alan the Great of Brittany (d. 907) waged war successfully on the Norsemen. As a result of his conquests, the Cotentin Peninsula was included theoretically in the territory of the Kingdom of Brittany , after the Treaty of Compiègne (867) with the king of the Franks. The kings of Brittany suffered continuing Norse invasions and Norman raids, and Brittany lost the Cotentin Peninsula (and Avranchin nearby) after only 70 years of political domination. Meanwhile, Vikings settled on

867-596: The French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire that are now not part of France: Dutch Republic : Holy Roman Empire : Dutch Republic : Holy Roman Empire : Dutch Republic : Holy Roman Empire : Holy Roman Empire : Electorate of the Palatinate Electorate of the Palatinate Kingdom of Prussia : Imperial Free City of Wesel (after 1805) Notes for Table 7: La Hague La Hague ( French pronunciation: [la ag] )

918-471: The ISO 3166-2 country subdivision codes for the metropolitan departments. The overseas departments have three digits. Originally, the relationship between the departments and the central government was left somewhat ambiguous. While citizens in each department elected their own officials, the local governments were subordinated to the central government, becoming instruments of national integration. By 1793, however,

969-585: The National Constituent Assembly . Their boundaries served two purposes: The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments. Most were named after an area's principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine . Savoy , during its temporary occupation, became the department of Mont-Blanc . The provinces continued to exist administratively until 21 September 1791. The number of departments, initially 83, had been increased to 130 by 1809 with

1020-506: The Norman language , and the local dialect is known as Cotentinais . The Norman language poet Côtis-Capel (1915–1986) described the environment of the peninsula, while French language poet Jacques Prévert made his home at Omonville-la-Petite . The painter Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) was also born on the peninsula. The Norman language writer Alfred Rossel  [ fr ] , native of Cherbourg, composed many songs which form part of

1071-634: The President of the Departmental Council as executive of the department. Before 1982, the chief executive of the department was the prefect ( préfet ), who represents the Government of France in each department and is appointed by the President of the French Republic . The prefect is assisted by one or more sub-prefects ( sous-préfet ) based in the subprefectures of the department. Since 1982,

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1122-553: The Saire River ( Val de Saire ). It forms the bulk of the department of Manche. Its southern part, known as "le Marais" (the Marshlands), crosses from east to west from just north west of Saint Lo and east of Lessay and marks a natural border with the rest of Manche. The largest town on the peninsula is Cherbourg-en-Cotentin , a major cross-channel port on the north coast, with a population of approximately 120,000. The population of

1173-569: The Territoire de Belfort ; the remaining parts of Meurthe and Moselle were merged into a new Meurthe-et-Moselle department. When France regained the ceded departments after World War I , the Territoire de Belfort was not reintegrated into Haut-Rhin. In 1922 it became France's 90th department. Likewise the Lorraine departments were not changed back to their original boundaries, and a new Moselle department

1224-651: The UMP , said in December 2008 that the fusion of the departments with the regions was a matter to be dealt with soon. This was soon refuted by Édouard Balladur and Gérard Longuet , members of the committee for the reform of local authorities, known as the Balladur Committee. In January 2008, the Attali Commission recommended that the departmental level of government should be eliminated within ten years. Nevertheless,

1275-651: The Versailles of Normandy . The social scene was described in the novels of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808–1889) (himself from the Cotentin). Little now remains of the grand houses and châteaux; they were destroyed by combat there during the Battle of Normandy in World War II . The westernmost part of the D-Day landings was at Utah Beach , on the southeastern coast of the peninsula, and

1326-507: The 1960s. Privately owned CMN builds frigates and patrol vessels for various states, mostly from the Middle East. Tourism is also an important economic activity in this region. Many tourists visit the D-Day invasion beaches, including Utah Beach in the Cotentin. At Sainte-Mère-Église a few miles away from the beach, there is a museum commemorating the action of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions . The Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg

1377-412: The Balladur Committee has not retained this proposition and does not advocate the disappearance of the departments, but simply "favors the voluntary grouping of departments", which it suggests also for the regions, with the aim of reducing the number of regions to 15. This committee advocates, on the contrary, the suppression of the cantons. Each department has a coat of arms and a flag with which it

1428-567: The Cape of Carteret and the Cape of Granville. To the northwest, there are two sand dune systems: one stretching between Siouville-Hague and Vauville , the other one stretching between Cap of Carteret and Baubigny . The peninsula formed part of the Roman geographical area of Armorica . The town known today as Coutances , capital of the Unelli , a Gaulish tribe, acquired the name of Constantia in 298 during

1479-637: The Cotentin in the ninth and tenth centuries. There are indications of a whaling industry there dating to the ninth century, possibly introduced by Norsemen. They were followed by Anglo-Norse and Anglo-Danish people, who established themselves as farmers. The Cotentin became part of Normandy in the early tenth century. Many placenames there are derived from the Norse language . Examples include La Hague , from hagi ("meadow" or "enclosure"), and La Hougue , from haugr ("hill" or "mound"). Other names are typical: all those ending with -tot (Quettetot..) from topt "site of

1530-826: The Republic (all created in 1946) – French Guiana , Guadeloupe , Martinique and Réunion – the total number of departments in the French Republic had become 101. In 2015 the Urban Community of Lyon was split from Rhône to form the Métropole de Lyon , a sui generis entity, with the powers of both an intercommunality and those of a department on its territory, formally classified as a "territorial collectivity with particular status" ( French : collectivité territoriale à statut particulier ) and as such not belonging to any department. As of 2019 Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse are still administrative departments, although they no longer have

1581-423: The administrative basis for the local organisation of police, fire departments as well as, in certain cases, elections. Each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council ( sg. conseil départemental , pl. conseils départementaux ). From 1800 to April 2015, these were called general councils ( sg. conseil général , pl. conseils généraux ). Each council has

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1632-571: The bay of La Hougue, and then went to the Church of Quettehou in Val de Saire. It was there that Edward III knighted his son Edward, the Black Prince . A remembrance plaque can be seen next to the altar. The naval Battle of La Hogue in 1692 was fought off Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue near Barfleur . The town of Valognes was, until the French Revolution , a provincial social resort for the aristocracy, nicknamed

1683-472: The coast. Cider and calvados are produced from locally grown apples and pears. The region hosts two important nuclear power facilities. At Flamanville there is a nuclear power plant , and the La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant is located a few miles to the north, at Beaumont-Hague. The facility stores all high-level waste from the French nuclear power program in one large vault. The nuclear industry provides

1734-414: The country's capital city, is a commune as well as a department. In continental France ( metropolitan France , excluding Corsica ), the median land area of a department is 5,965 km (2,303 sq mi), which is two-and-a-half times the median land area of the ceremonial counties of England and the preserved counties of Wales and slightly more than three-and-half times the median land area of

1785-620: The government; however, regions have gained importance since the 2000s, with some department-level services merged into region-level services. The departments were created in 1790 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity; the title "department" is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after physical geographical features (rivers, mountains, or coasts), rather than after historical or cultural territories, which could have their own loyalties, or after their own administrative seats. The division of France into departments

1836-432: The heritage of the region. Rossel's song Sus la mé ("on the sea") is often sung as a regional patriotic song. 49°30′N 1°30′W  /  49.500°N 1.500°W  / 49.500; -1.500 Departments of France In the administrative divisions of France , the department ( French : département , pronounced [depaʁtəmɑ̃] ) is one of the three levels of government under

1887-443: The national level (" territorial collectivities "), between the administrative regions and the communes . There are ninety-six departments in metropolitan France , with an additional five overseas departments , which are also classified as overseas regions. Departments are further subdivided into 333 arrondissements and 2,054 cantons (as of 2023). These last two levels of government have no political autonomy, instead serving as

1938-640: The new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice and a portion of the Var department. The 89 departments were given numbers based on the alphabetical order of their names. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe , Moselle , Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871 following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War . A small part of Haut-Rhin, however, remained French and became known as

1989-407: The numbers corresponded to the alphabetical order of the names of the departments, but several changed their names and some have been divided, so the correspondence became less exact. Alphanumeric codes 2A and 2B were used for Corsica while it was split but it has since reverted to 20. The two-digit code "98" is used by Monaco . Together with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code FR, the numbers form

2040-442: The numbers of all the departments. In 2014, President François Hollande proposed abolishing departmental councils by 2020, which would have maintained the departments as administrative divisions, and transferring their powers to other levels of governance. This reform project has since been scrapped. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René d'Argenson to serve as administrative areas purely for

2091-581: The peninsula is about 250,000. The western coast of the peninsula, known as the Côte des Îles ("Islands Coast"), faces the Channel Islands. Ferry links serve Carteret and the islands of Jersey , Guernsey and Alderney from Dielette . Off the east coast of the peninsula lies the island of Tatihou and the Îles Saint-Marcouf . The oldest stone in France is found in outcroppings on the coast of Cap de la Hague, at

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2142-429: The prefect retains only the powers that are not delegated to the department councils. In practice, their role has been largely limited to preventing local policy from conflicting with national policy. The departments are further divided into communes , governed by municipal councils . As of 2013, there were 36,681 communes in France. In the overseas territories , some communes play a role at departmental level. Paris ,

2193-559: The reign of Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus . The base of the peninsula, called in Latin the pagus Constantinus , joined together with the pagus Coriovallensis centred upon Cherbourg to the north, subsequently became known as the Cotentin. Under the Carolingians it was administered by viscounts drawn successively from members of the Saint-Sauveur family, at their seat Saint-Sauveur on

2244-460: The revolutionary government had turned the departments into transmission belts for policies enacted in Paris. With few exceptions, the departments had this role until the early 1960s. These maps cannot be used as a useful resource of voter preferences, because Departmental Councils are elected on a two-round system, which drastically limits the chances of fringe parties, if they are not supported on one of

2295-428: The status of departmental " territorial collectivities ": region and department functions have been managed by a " single territorial collectivity " since 2018. Despite the intention to avoid the old nomenclature, often the names of pre-1790 provinces remained in use. For example, the name of Berry , though no longer having an official status, remains in widespread use in daily life. The departmental seat of government

2346-575: The territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire . Following the defeats of Napoleon in 1814–1815 the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size and the number of departments was reduced to 86 (three of the original departments having been split). In 1860 France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy , which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from

2397-455: The tip of the peninsula. Cotentin was almost an island at one time. Only a small strip of land in the heath of Lessay connected the peninsula with the mainland. Thanks to the so-called portes à flot ( fr ), which close at flood and open at ebb and which were built in the west coast and in the Baie des Veys, on the east coast, the Cotentin has become a peninsula. The Côte des Havres lies between

2448-455: The two rounds by a moderate party. After the 1992 election, the left had a majority in only 21 of the 100 departments; after the 2011 election, the left dominated 61 of the 100 departments. (Mayotte only became a department after the election.) Key to the parties: The removal of one or more levels of local government has been discussed for some years; in particular, the option of removing the departmental level. Frédéric Lefebvre , spokesman for

2499-484: Was a project particularly identified with the French revolutionary leader the Abbé Sieyès , although it had already been frequently discussed and written about by many politicians and thinkers. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1665 in the writings of d'Argenson . They have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. The 1822 territorial division of Spain (reverted due to

2550-463: Was created in the regained territory, with slightly different boundaries from the pre-war department of the same name. The reorganisation of Île-de-France in 1968 and the division of Corsica in 1975 added six more departments, raising the total in Metropolitan France to 96. By 2011, when the overseas collectivity of Mayotte became a department, joining the earlier overseas departments of

2601-611: Was followed by a campaign to occupy the peninsula and take Cherbourg. The genetic history of the modern inhabitants of Cotentin Peninsula was studied by the University of Leicester in 2015-2016 to determine the extent of Scandinavian ancestry in Normandy. The results were inconclusive. The peninsula's main economic resource is agriculture. Dairy and vegetable farming are prominent activities, as well as aquaculture of oysters and mussels along

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