- Orne
-
For French rivers called Orne, see Orne (disambiguation).
Orne — Department — 
Coat of armsLocation of Orne in France
Coordinates: 48°42′N 00°00′E / 48.7°N 0°ECoordinates: 48°42′N 00°00′E / 48.7°N 0°E Country France Region Basse-Normandie Prefecture Alençon Subprefectures Argentan
Mortagne-au-PercheGovernment – President of the General Council Alain Lambert (UMP) Area1 – Total 6,103 km2 (2,356.4 sq mi) Population (2007) – Total 292,609 – Rank 73rd – Density 47.9/km2 (124.2/sq mi) Time zone CET (UTC+1) – Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2) Department number 61 Arrondissements 3 Cantons 40 Communes 505 ^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2 Orne is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne.
Contents
History
Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche.
Geography
Orne is in the region of Basse-Normandie neighbouring Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Sarthe, Mayenne, and Calvados. It is the only department of Basse Normandie and Haute Normandie to be landlocked.
Economy
The largest town by a considerable margin is the prefecture, Alençon which is an administrative and commercial centre for what is still an overwhelmingly rural department. There are no large industrial centres: agriculture remains the economic focus of Orne.
Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Ornais.
The recorded population level peaked at 443,688 in 1836. Declining farm incomes and the lure of better prospects in the overseas empire led to a sustained reduction in population levels in many rural departments, and by the time of the 1936 census the recorded population stood at just 269,331. Once motor car ownership started to surge in the 1960s employment opportunities became less restricted and by 2008 the population level had recovered a little to 292,282.
The two major cities in the Orne are Alençon, the prefecture, and Flers, who deserved to be subprefecture.
Culture
Alençon is the chief town of the Orne department.
Camembert, the village where Camembert cheese is made, is located in Orne.
The local dialect is known as Augeron.
See also
- Cantons of the Orne department
- Communes of the Orne department
- Arrondissements of the Orne department
- Orne River
- St. Andre sur Orne
- La Mansonnière cave
External links
- (French) Prefecture website
- (French) General Council website
- (English) Orne at the Open Directory Project
- (English) Orne Tourism
Categories:
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
