On the steps of william the conqueror

With the middle ages, it is william the conqueror who strengthened the town of saint-james to protect itself from the breton invasions. you will find these vestiges thanks to two walks in the city and its neighbourhoods. ask the course the office of touri

Discover montmartin sur mer  700 inhabitants, Situé centers Manche of it, to 340 km of Paris, 100 km of Caen, 11 km of Coutances, the canton of Montmartin-on-Sea profits from a oceanic climate appreciated throughout the year. It has 7 km of fine sand beach.

Discover carentan  Vast meadows squared of ditches and strewn with peat bogs where racehorses and bovines feed, crossed by the courses of the Ditch, Taute and Sèvre which are thrown in the immense estuary of Bay of Veys where saw a colony of seals, traditional scrap-metal on the heights and polders close to the sea: you are with the country of the Marshes of Carentan.

In the heart of the contentin region  The history of Coutances goes up to 1st S. before J.C. Capital of Unelles (Gallic people) named Cosédia, it is renamed Constantia in IVes. It is then a true city with a military prefect and a garrison. It becomes the seat of évêché in Ves. Capital administrative, legal, and nun of Cotentin, the city experiences an important development and profits from the rise of the duchy of Normandy to which it was attached into 933. The city is then divided along the antique principal axis: on a side capacity of the duke, other what concerns the bishop. This is why the majority of the religious foundations were done on the side is of Coutances. The bishops Geoffroy de Montbray in XIe S. then Hugues de Morville in XIIIes. worked with the construction of the current cathedral. Coutances is struck hard by the One hundred year old war, during which it is occupied by the English of 1418 to 1449, then by the Wars of religion. XVe and XVIe S. see the development of the artisanal and commercial middle-class (district of the Pillars, street Saint-Pierre). End of XVIes. is marked by the rise of printing works with Coutances, where the noblesse de robe (lawyers…) start to make build private mansions on the layouts of the old ramparts, who had been demolished on order of the king. In 1639, the revolt of the Flip-flops against excesses of the tax bursts in Normandy and touches Coutances where it is violently repressed by the Séguier chancellor. In 1795, Coutances loses its historical role of administrative capital, the prefecture of the new department of the English Channel being established in Saint-Lo. The textile remains the principal activity until the Second Empire. The late fastening (1878) of the city to the shoed network indicates the industrial backwardness of Coutançais, which remains primarily agricultural until the shortly after the Second World war. The bombardments of the 6 and June 13, 1944 have deeply ravaged the city, destroyed with 60%. The rebuilding is carried out of 1947 to 1957, under the direction of Louis Arretche and Roman Karasinsky. The dwellings are rebuilt according to the architectural tradition coutançaise (house of one or two stages - turret of staircase - coated frontage - architectural sobriety), using local materials (stone of Cambernon - stone of Montmartin). The city found since its economic and demographic dynamism. It is today the town of Europe which counts the greatest number of anybody in formation (more than 6000) compared to his number of inhabitant (a little less than 10.000). The international Festival Jazz under the cultural apple trees, its equipment and the richness of its inheritance ensure the fame of it.

Discover blainville sur mer  Small city Low Norman of 1580 inhabitants on the coast of the harbours of Cotentin to some encablures of the islands Chausey, Jersey and Guernesey. Located on the western littoral of the English Channel at a dozen kilometers of Coutances and at 35 km of Granville, Blainville on sea is the French capital of ostreiculture. With the most important coéfficients of tides of Europe, fishing with foot attracts many tourists. Lastly, Blainville on sea proposes to you comfortable equipment and of quality: camp-site, vacation village, lodgings and reception at the inhabitant.

Fermanville  To enter Fermanville, the tourist road D116, does not lose north and skirts the sea: one enters the sharp one of the granite. Sight on the Cape Lévi: handles and points follow one another pleasures of the walkers, emotions of the navigators. Rock splits, two ports, a headlight, a fort as many blows of heart of a varied maritime shore. The sky is part, luminous blue or agitated gray. At the rate/rhythm of the tides, treasures hide or are stripped. Time marks… TIME! The history awaits the visitor with the turnings: the cross of Prométhée, the Fort, the battery of Brulay…