Côtes-d'Armor

Côtes-d'Armor
—  Department  —

Coat of arms
Location of Côtes-d'Armor in France
Coordinates:
Country France
Region Brittany
Prefecture Saint-Brieuc
Subprefectures Dinan
Guingamp
Lannion
Government
 - President of the General Council Claudy Lebreton (PS)
Area1
 - Total 6,878 km2 (2,655.6 sq mi)
Population (2009)
 - Total 576,049
 - Rank 43rd
 - Density 83.8/km2 (216.9/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 22
Arrondissements 4
Cantons 52
Communes 373
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Côtes-d'Armor (Breton: Aodoù-an-Arvor) is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France.

Contents

History

Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Brittany. Its name was changed in 1990 to Côtes-d'Armor (ar mor meaning the sea in Breton). The name also has a historical connotation recalling the Roman province of Armorica.

Geography

Côtes-d'Armor is part of the current administrative region of Brittany and is surrounded by the departments of Finistère, Morbihan, and Ille-et-Vilaine, with the English Channel on the north.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Costarmoricains.

Politics

The Côtes-d'Armor has usually been a left-wing holdout in a historically strongly clerical and right-wing Brittany, due to the department's more anti-clerical nature, especially in the inland area around Guingamp, a former Communist stronghold.

The President of the General Council is Claudy Lebreton of the Socialist Party.

Party seats
• Socialist Party 33
Union for a Popular Movement 8
• Miscellaneous Left 4
• French Communist Party 4
Miscellaneous Right 1
MoDem 1

Culture

The western part of the département is part of the traditionally Breton-speaking "Lower Brittany" (Breizh-Izel in Breton). The boundary runs from Plouha to Mûr-de-Bretagne. The Breton language has become an intense issue in many parts of Brittany, and many Breton-speakers advocate for bilingual schools. Gallo is also spoken in the east and is offered as a language in the schools and on the baccalaureat exams.

See also

External links