Everything about Normandy totally explained
Normandy (
Norman:
Normaundie) is a geographical region corresponding to the former
Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the coast of France south of the
English Channel between
Brittany (to the west) and
Picardy (to the east) and comprises territory in northern
France and the
Channel Islands. The territory is divided between French and British sovereignty. The continental territory under French sovereignty covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two
régions:
Basse-Normandie and
Haute-Normandie. The Channel Islands (referred to as
Iles Anglo-Normandes in
French) covers 194 km² and comprise two
bailiwicks:
Guernsey and
Jersey, both under British rule.
Upper Normandy (
Haute-Normandie) consists of the French
départements of
Seine-Maritime and
Eure, and Lower Normandy (
Basse-Normandie) of the
départements of
Orne,
Calvados, and
Manche. The former
province Normandy comprised present-day Upper and Lower Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the
départements of
Eure-et-Loir,
Mayenne, and
Sarthe.
The name of Normandy is derived from the settlement and conquest of the territory by
Vikings ("
Northmen") from the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century. For a century and a half following the
Norman Conquest of England in
1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman rulers, but following
1204 the continental territory was ultimately held by France.
The population of Normandy is around 3.45 million people. The continental population of 3.26 million accounts for 5.5% of the population of France (in 2005).
Basse-Normandie is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The
bocage is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Haute-Normandie contains a higher concentration of
industry. Normandy is a significant
cider-producing region, and also produces
calvados, a distilled cider or
apple brandy. Other activities of economic importance are
dairy produce,
flax (60% of production in France),
horse breeding (including two French national stud farms),
fishing,
seafood, and
tourism. The region contains three French
nuclear power stations.
History
Archeological finds, such as
cave paintings prove that
humans were present in the region as far back as
prehistoric times.
Belgian
Celts, known as
Gauls, invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th century BC to the 3rd century BC.
When Caesar invades Gaul there are nine different Gallic tribes in Normandy.
The
Romanization of Normandy was achieved by the usual methods:
Roman roads and a policy of
urbanization.
Classicists have knowledge of many
Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy.
In the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements risked raids by
Saxon pirates.
Christianity began to enter the area during this period.
In
406,
Germanic tribes began invading from the West, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast. The Roman Emperor withdrew from most of Normandy.
As early as
486, the area between the
Somme and the
Loire came under the control of the
Frankish lord
Clovis.
The
fiefdom of Normandy was created for the
Viking leader
Rollo (also known as Robert of Normandy). Rollo had besieged
Paris but in
911 entered
vassalage to the
king of the
West Franks Charles the Simple through the
Treaty of Saint Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his
homage and
fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (for example "Northman") origins.
The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local
Gallo-Romantic language and intermarried with the area’s previous inhabitants and became the
Normans – a
Norman French-speaking mixture of
Scandinavians,
Hiberno-Norse,
Orcadians,
Anglo-Danish, and indigenous
Franks and
Gauls.
Rollo's descendant
William, Duke of Normandy became
king of England in
1066 in the
Norman Conquest culminating at the
Battle of Hastings while retaining the
fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants.
Norman expansion
Besides the
Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of
Wales and
Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas.
Tancred's sons
William Iron Arm,
Drogo of Hauteville,
Humphrey of Hauteville,
Robert Guiscard and
Roger the Great Count conquered the
Emirate of Sicily and additional territories in
Southern Italy and carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the
Crusader States of
Asia Minor and the
Holy Land.
14th century Norman explorer
Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom on the
Canary Islands. Béthencourt received the title King of the Canary Islands but recognized
Henry III of Castile, who had provided aid during the conquest, as his overlord.
Norman families, such as that of
Tancred of Hauteville played important parts in the
Crusades.
13th to 17th centuries
In
1204, during the reign of
King John of England, mainland Normandy was taken from England by France under
Philip II of France while insular Normandy (the
Channel Islands) remained under English control. In
1259,
Henry III of England recognized the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under the
Treaty of Paris. His successors, however, often fought to regain control of mainland French Normandy.
The
Charte aux Normands granted by
Louis X of France in
1315 (and later re-confirmed in
1339), like the analogous
Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204, guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy.
French Normandy was occupied by English forces during the
Hundred Years' War in
1346-
1360 and again in
1415-
1450. Afterwards, prosperity returned to Normandy until the
Wars of Religion when many Norman towns (Alençon, Rouen, Caen, Coutances, Bayeux) joined the
Protestant Reformation and battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of
Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when
Anglicanism was imposed following the
English Civil War.
From the 1660s onwards, France engaged in a policy of expansion in North America. Normans continued the exploration of the New World :
René Robert Cavelier de La Salle travelled in the area of the
Great Lakes of the
United States and
Canada, then on the
Mississippi river. Territories located between
Quebec and the delta of Mississippi were opened up, in other words
French Louisiana.
Honfleur and
Le Havre were two of the principal
slave traders ports of France.
Colonists from Normandy (in particular
Basse-Normandie) in
New France (
Quebec) were among the most active.
18th and 19th centuries
Although agriculture remained important, industries such as weaving, metallurgy, ceramics, sugar refining, shipbuilding were introduced and developed.
In the 1780s, the economic crisis and the crisis of the
Ancien Régime struck Normandy and led to the
French revolution. Bad harvests, technical progress and the effects of the
Eden Agreement signed in
1786, affected employment and the economy of the province. Especially, Normans laboured under a heavy fiscal burden.
In 1790 the five departments of Normandy were instituted.
July 11, 1793,
Charlotte Corday assassinated
Marat.
The Normans reacted little to the many political upheavals which characterized the 19
th century. Careful, they accepted overall the changes of régime (
First French Empire,
Bourbon Restoration,
July Monarchy ,
French Second Republic,
Second French Empire,
French Third Republic).
There was an economic revival (mechanization of textile manufacture, first trains...) after the
French Revolutionary Wars and the
Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815).
And a new activity dynamized the seaside: tourism. The 19
th century marks the birth of the first seaside resorts.
Franco-Prussian War : the
Prussians entered Normandy, animating more than ever
nationalisms, the feeling of a revenge to be taken developed and reached its ultimate and dramatic consequences by
1914 (
World War I ).
World War II
During
World War II, following the
armistice of 22 June 1940 continental Normandy was part of the
German occupied zone of France. The Channel Islands were
occupied by German forces between
30 June 1940 and
9 May 1945.
The town of
Dieppe was the site of the ill-fated
Dieppe Raid by
Canadian and
British armed forces.
During the
Second World War, the
D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches under the code name
Operation Overlord were a massive invasion of
German-occupied France by
Allied troops.
Caen,
Cherbourg,
Carentan,
Falaise and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the
Battle of Normandy, which continued until the closing of the so-called
Falaise gap between
Chambois and Montormel, then liberation of
Le Havre.
This led to the restoration of the French Republic, and a significant turning point in the war. The remainder of Normandy was only liberated on
9 May 1945 at the end of the war, when the
Occupation of the Channel Islands ended.
Geography
The historical Duchy of Normandy was a formerly independent
duchy occupying the lower
Seine area, the
Pays de Caux and the region to the west through the
Pays d'Auge as far as the
Cotentin Peninsula.
The region is bordered along the northern coasts by the English Channel. There are granite
cliffs in the west and limestone cliffs in the east. There are also long stretches of beach in the centre of the region. The
bocage typical of the western areas caused problems for the invading forces in the
Battle of Normandy. There are
meanders of the Seine as it approaches its estuary which form a notable feature of the landscape.
The highest point is the Signal d'Écouves (427m) in the Suisse Normande.
Normandy is sparsely forested: 12.8% of the territory is wooded, compared to a French average of 23.6%, although the proportion varies between the departments. Eure has most cover (21%) while Manche has least (4%), a characteristic shared with the Islands.
Regions
Channel Islands
The bailliage of Jersey
The bailliage of Guernsey
The Channel Islands, although British crown dependencies, are considered culturally and historically a part of Normandy.
Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains the title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey) remain Crown dependencies of the British Crown in the present era. Thus the Loyal Toast in the Channel Islands is La Reine, notre Duc ("The Queen, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to not be the Duke of Normandy in regards of the French region of Normandy described herein, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1259, the surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs.
Rivers
Rivers in Normandy include:
the Seine and its tributaries :
the Bresle
the Touques
the Dives
the Orne
the Vire
the Sée
the Sélune
the Couesnon, which traditionally marks the boundary between the Duchy of Brittany and the Duchy of Normandy
the Veules, shortest french river
Towns
» See:
The principal cities (population at the 1999 census) are Rouen (518,316 inhabitants in the metropolitan area), the capital of Upper Normandy and formerly of the whole province; Caen (370,851 inhabitants in the metropolitan area), the capital of Lower Normandy; Le Havre (296,773 inhabitants in the metropolitan area); and Cherbourg (117,855 inhabitants in the metropolitan area).
Population
In January 2006 the population of Normandy (including the part of Perche which lies inside the Orne département but excluding the Channel Islands) was estimated at 3,260,000 with an average population density of 109 inhabitants per km², just under the French national average, but rising to 147 for Upper Normandy.
Economy
| Year |
Area |
Labour force in agriculture |
Labour force in industry |
Labour force in services |
| 2003 |
Haute-Normandie |
2.30 % |
36.10 % |
61.60 % |
| 2003 |
Basse-Normandie |
7.13 % |
25.06 % |
67.81 % |
| 2006 |
France |
2.20 % |
20.60 % |
77.20 % |
| Area |
u>GDP (in million of Euros)(2006) |
u>Unemployment (% of the labour force)(2007) |
| Haute-Normandie |
46,853 |
6.80 % |
| Basse-Normandie |
34,064 |
7.90 % |
| France |
1,791,956 |
7.50 % |
Food and drink
Parts of Normandy consist of rolling countryside typified by pasture for dairy cattle and apple orchards. A wide range of dairy products are produced and exported. Norman cheeses include Camembert, Livarot, Pont l'Évêque, Brillat-Savarin, Neufchâtel, Petit Suisse and Boursin. Normandy butter and Normandy cream are lavishly used in gastronomic specialties.
Fish and seafood are of superior quality in Normandy. Turbot and oysters from the Cotentin Peninsula are major delicacies throughout France. Normandy is the chief oyster-cultivating, scallop-exporting, and mussel-raising region in France.
Normandy is a major cider-producing region (very little wine is produced). Perry is also produced, but in less significant quantities. Apple brandy, of which the most famous variety is calvados, is also popular. The mealtime trou normand, or Norman break, is a pause between meal courses in which diners partake of a glassful of calvados, and is still observed in many homes and restaurants. Pommeau is an apéritif produced by blending unfermented cider and apple brandy. Another aperitif is the kir normand, a measure of cassis topped up with cider. Bénédictine is produced in Fécamp.
Apples are also used in cooking: for example, moules à la normande are mussels cooked with apples and cream, bourdelots are apples baked in pastry, partridges are flamed with reinette apples, and localities all over the province have their own variation of apple tart. A classic pastry dish from the region is flan Normand a pastry-based variant of the apple tart.
Other regional specialities include tripes à la mode de Caen, andouilles and andouillettes, salt meadow (pré salé) lamb, seafood (mussels, scallops, lobsters, mackerel…), and teurgoule (spiced rice pudding).
Normandy dishes include duckling à la rouennaise, sautéed chicken yvetois, and goose en daube. Rabbit is cooked with morels, or à la havraise (stuffed with truffled pigs' trotters). Other dishes are sheep's trotters à la rouennaise, casseroled veal, larded calf's liver braised with carrots, and veal (or turkey) in cream and mushrooms.
Normandy is also noted for its pastries. It is the birthplace of brioches (especially those from Évreux and Gisors) and also turns out douillons (pears baked in pastry), craquelins, roulettes in Rouen, fouaces in Caen, fallues in Lisieux, sablés in Lisieux. Confectionery of the region includes Rouen apple sugar, Isigny caramels, Bayeux mint chews, Falaise berlingots, Le Havre marzipans, Argentan croquettes, and Rouen macaroons.
Normandy is the native land of Taillevent, cook of the kings of France Charles V and Charles VI. He wrote the earliest French cookery book named Le Viandier. Confiture de lait was also made in Normandy around the 14th century.
Culture
Symbols
The traditional provincial flag of Normandy, gules, two leopards passant or, is used in both modern regions.
The historic three-leopard version (known in the Norman language as les treis cats, "the three cats") is used by some associations and individuals, especially those who support reunification of the regions and cultural links with the Channel Islands and England. Jersey and Guernsey use three leopards in their national symbols. The three leopards represents the strength and courage Normandy has towards the neighbouring provinces.
The unofficial anthem of the region is the song "Ma Normandie".
Image:Haute-Normandie flag.svg|"Three-leopard" version
Image:Normandy flag large.png|Nordic Cross flag by Le Mouvement Normand
Image:Flag of Sark.svg|"Two-leopard" flag of Sark
Image:Blason duche fr Normandie.svg|Coat of arms of the Duchy of Normandy
Image:Coat of arms of Guernsey.svg|Coat of arms of Guernsey
Image:Jersey arms on Piquet House in St Helier.jpg|Coat of arms of Jersey
Image:Norman flags on parade.jpg|Two-leopard and three-leopard flags at a Norman language festival in Jersey.
Literature
The Dukes of Normandy commissioned and inspired epic literature to record and legitimise their rule. Wace, Orderic Vitalis and Étienne of Rouen were among those who wrote in the service of the Dukes.
After the division of 1204, French literature provided the model for the development of literature in Normandy. Olivier Basselin wrote of the Vaux de Vire, the origin of literary vaudeville.
Among notable Norman writers in French are Jean Marot, Rémy Belleau, Guy de Maupassant, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Gustave Flaubert, Octave Mirbeau and Remy de Gourmont. The Corneille brothers, Pierre and Thomas, born in Rouen, were great figures of French classical literature.
David Ferrand (1591-1660) in his Muse Normande established a landmark of Norman language literature. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the workers and merchants of Rouen established a tradition of polemical and satirical literature in a form of language called the parler purin. At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century a new movement arose in the Channel Islands, led by writers such as George Métivier, which sparked a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland. In exile in Jersey and then Guernsey, Victor Hugo took an interest in the vernacular literature. Les Travailleurs de la mer is a well-known novel by Hugo set in the Channel Islands. The boom in insular literature in the early 19th century encouraged production especially in La Hague and around Cherbourg, where Alfred Rossel, Louis Beuve and Côtis-Capel became active. The typical medium for literary expression in Norman has traditionally been newspaper columns and almanacs. The novel Zabeth by André Louis which appeared in 1969 was the first novel published in Norman.
Painting
Romanticism drew painters to the Channel coasts of Normandy. Richard Parkes Bonington and J. M. W. Turner crossed the Channel from Great Britain, attracted by the light and landscapes. Théodore Géricault, a native of Rouen, was a notable figure in the Romantic movement. The competing Realist tendency was represented by Jean-François Millet, a native of La Hague.
From the 1860s, plein-air painters, who worked outside the studio, were attracted to Normandy by the ease of railway access from Paris and the development of a market among the growing number of affluent tourists visiting the coasts of Calvados. Eugène Boudin's paintings of fashionable seaside scenes are typical of this period.
Claude Monet's waterlily garden at Giverny is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the region, and his series of views of Rouen Cathedral are major works of Impressionism. It was Impression, Sunrise, a painting by Monet of Le Havre, that led to the movement being dubbed "Impressionism".
The Société normande de peinture moderne was founded in 1909. Among members were Raoul Dufy, a native of Le Havre, Albert Marquet, Francis Picabia and Maurice Utrillo. Also in this movement were the Duchamp brothers, Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp.
Languages
French is the only official language in continental Normandy. English is also an official language in the Channel Islands.
The Norman language, a regional language, is spoken by a minority of the population in the continent and the Islands, with a concentration in the Cotentin Peninsula in the far West (the Cotentinais dialect), and in the Pays de Caux in the East (the Cauchois dialect). Many place names demonstrate the Norse influence in this Oïl language; for example -bec (stream), -fleur (river), -hou (island), -tot (homestead).
Architecture
Architecturally, Norman cathedrals, abbeys (such as the Abbey of Bec) and castles characterise the former Duchy in a way that mirrors the similar pattern of Norman architecture in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Domestic architecture in upper Normandy is typified by half-timbered buildings that also recall vernacular English architecture, although the farm enclosures of the more harshly landscaped Pays de Caux are a more idiosyncratic response to socio-economic and climatic imperatives. Much urban architectural heritage was destroyed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944 - post-war urban reconstruction, such as in Le Havre and Saint-Lô, could be said to demonstrate both the virtues and vices of modernist and brutalist trends of the 1950s and 1960s. Le Havre, the city rebuilt by Auguste Perret, was added to Unesco’s World Heritage List in 2005.
Vernacular architecture in lower Normandy takes its form from granite, the predominant local building material. The Channel Islands also share this influence - Chausey was for many years a source of quarried granite, including that used for the construction of Mont Saint-Michel.
The south part of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne is filled with bourgeois villas in Belle Époque style with polychrome façades, bow windows and unique roofing. This area, built between 1886 and 1914, has an authentic “Bagnolese” style and is typical of high-society country vacation of the time.
Religion
The Chapel of Saint Germanus (Chapelle Saint-Germain) at Querqueville with its trefoil floorplan incorporates elements of one of the earliest surviving places of Christian worship in the Cotentin - perhaps second only to the Gallo-Roman baptistry at Port-Bail.
Christian missionaries implanted monastic communities in the territory in the 5th and 6th centuries. Some of these missionaries came from across the Channel. The influence of Celtic Christianity can still be found in the Cotentin.
By the terms of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo, a Viking pagan, accepted Christianity and was baptised. The Duchy of Normandy was therefore formally a Christian state from its foundation.
The cathedrals of Normandy have exerted influence down the centuries in matters of both faith and politics. Henry II, King of England, did penance at the cathedral of Avranches on 21 May 1172 and was absolved from the censures incurred by the assassination of Thomas Becket. Mont Saint-Michel is a historic pilgrimage site.
Prominent Protestant ministers include Pierre Allix, Jacques Basnages, and Samuel Bochart.
Since the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State there's no established church in mainland Normandy. In the Channel Islands, the Church of England is the established church.
Saints
Normandy doesn't have one generally-agreed patron saint, although this title has been ascribed to Saint Michael, and to Saint Ouen.
Many saints have been revered in Normandy down the centuries, including:
Aubert who's remembered as the founder of Mont Saint-Michel
Marcouf and Laud who are important saints in Lower Normandy
Helier and Samson of Dol who are evangelizers of the Channel Islands
Thomas Becket, an Anglo-Norman whose parents were from Rouen, who was the object of a considerable cult in mainland Normandy following his martyrdom
Joan of Arc who was martyred in Rouen, and who is especially remembered in that city
Thérèse de Lisieux whose former home in Lisieux is a focus for religious devotion.
People from Normandy
» See
Gallery
Image:William Bayeux.jpg|William the Conqueror, Tapestry of Bayeux
Image:MSM sunset 02.JPG|Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy (Manche), France, at night.
Image:RouenCathedral Monet 1894.jpeg|Rouen Cathedral by Claude Monet
Image:NormandyCourcelles2JM.jpg|150mm World War II German gun emplacement in Normandy.
Image:Pegasus Bridge in 1944.2.jpg| The Pegasus Bridge
Further Information
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