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A long department

More than 160 kilometers from north to south, and never more than 50 from west to east: the departmental limits have made the department very long. By grouping together the Cotentin, which occupies two thirds of the department, and the Avranchin, the region surrounding the town of the same name, a whole of about 6,000 km2 has emerged. It takes more than two hours to cross the Manche by car: the prefectural city, Saint-Lô, was chosen because of its geographical location, in the heart of the department.

A mild and - relatively - humid climate

Stop the clichés! The climate here is oceanic, although quite varied according to the part of the department in which you will be, it is never too hot, rarely very cold, and the precipitations are in accordance with those observed in the neighboring areas. You understand it, you should not tickle the local with the weather, by telling him that the weather is never nice here! Surrounded by the sea, with the passage of the Gulf Stream, this warm current, not far away, the department has low temperature differences at the seaside, on average 5 to 6 degrees between day and night, much more inland. Summers are mild, with average temperatures ranging from 22°C to 25°C from the coast to the interior, and winter frosts are rare. Thus, during the heat waves that have affected, in particular, the Paris region recently, many people came to seek the mildness here: 40°C in Paris, 25°C in Cherbourg, who can say better? On the sea side, if the famous Gulf Stream, mentioned above, allows to keep the water temperature not too cold in winter, it hardly reaches 20°C at the end of summer: it is however enough to make the holiday makers happy! Rainfall is not more abundant than elsewhere, but it is regular: hence the reputation, which is very annoying here, of a very frequent rainy weather. Thus, it drizzles more often than it rains (to the great joy of the farmers): it is the famous local drizzle. Finally, note that here, the tide plays an important role: in some places, it withdraws to several kilometers, and this phenomenon is not without impact on the clouds, favoring rapid and sudden changes in weather. The wind, finally, is often present: winter storms are frequent - be careful - and the sea breeze is not a legend here.

One coastline, many coastlines

330 kilometers of coastline: few departments can say better! Beyond their immensity, it is especially the diversity of the shores that strikes here. Huge beaches, rocks, cut-out areas, granite cliffs with many caves and falling into the sea: one would be hard pressed to find a more varied landscape. Among the striking landscapes, the harbors are a local specificity. They are formed by the many rivers that flow into the sea and cut the dunes, creating beautiful sandy points: a feeling of fullness guaranteed in Agon-Coutainville, Saint-Germain-sur-Ay or Portbail for example! Another local characteristic: the islands. Just like in neighboring Brittany, the Channel coast is very indented and is never far from an islet, an archipelago or sometimes even simple rocks that only appear at low tide. The Channel sea is very shallow here, usually only 20 to 30 meters deep. Thus, the Chausey islands, the Écrehous archipelago or the Saint-Marcouf island can be seen from the continent. It is also difficult not to mention the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm), which can be reached in a few dozen minutes.

A relief that can be surprising

The Armorican massif is the great organizer of the relief in the department, which is however very contrasted. Hills and valleys in the north, a vast area of hedged farmland and marshes in the center, and sometimes very uneven relief in the south: this is - very partially - how the department breaks down. In the south (in the north Armorican zone), high steep bars, most often oriented from east to west, offer steep valleys, hills from which rocky spurs sometimes emerge, offering landscapes that sometimes reach almost 400 meters in altitude. In the center of the department, the bocage, often hilly - without reaching the heights of the south - is a characteristic landscape of the Manche: the grasslands are thus criss-crossed by strong hedges, and the rearrangement of the 20th century has been less severe here than elsewhere. As you continue your journey northward, you will find one of the most striking landscapes: the Cotentin marshes. They almost cut the department from east to west: green in summer, they are completely covered with water in winter: it is the magnificent Regional Natural Park of the Cotentin and Bessin Marshes. Push a little to the north and, about twenty kilometers from Cherbourg, again, escarpments and valleys, which flow into the sea, especially towards the Hague.

A dense hydrography

The rivers are numerous and, if some of them, located in the extreme south-east of the department, end in the Loire, the vast majority flow into the Channel. Among the rivers, the Vire (which joins the sea at the level of the bay of Veys, in the east); the Sée, which ends its course in the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel; the Sienne or the Ay, whose arrivals in the sea are the settings of superb harbors on the west coast; or the small Divette, which joins the English Channel at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.

A stable and well-distributed population

Half a million inhabitants: this figure places La Manche in the middle of the ranking of French departments, and in4th place among the 5 Norman entities. Although the population was higher in the 19th century, it seriously declined due to the rural exodus and then the two World Wars: from 604,000 in 1846, it fell to 435,000 in 1946. Since then, the evolution of the population has seen a regular progression, but well below the national average, and has now stabilized for about ten years. The territory is homogeneous in this respect, and the small towns form a regular pattern throughout the department: Saint-Lô, Granville, Coutances, Valognes, Avranches and Carentan have between 5,000 and 20,000 inhabitants. A notable exception is the urban area of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. The city alone has 80,000 inhabitants (and even 120,000 for its urban area, i.e. nearly a quarter of the department's inhabitants).