Côtes-d'Armor

Côtes-d'Armor
—  Department  —
Coat of arms
Location of Côtes-d'Armor in France
Coordinates: 48°20′N 02°50′E / 48.333°N 2.833°E / 48.333; 2.833Coordinates: 48°20′N 02°50′E / 48.333°N 2.833°E / 48.333; 2.833
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.

History

Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 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.

The present department corresponds to most of historical Trégor, part of Cornouaille, and most of Saint-Brieuc.

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 to 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

Brittany portal

• Cantons of the Côtes-d'Armor department
• Communes of the Côtes-d'Armor department
• Arrondissements of the Côtes-d'Armor department

External links

• (French) Prefecture website
• (French) General Council website
• (English) Cotes-d'Armor at the Open Directory Project
• (French) Tourist board website