| Morbihan | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — Department — | |||
|
|||
| Location of Morbihan in France | |||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | France | ||
| Region | Brittany | ||
| Prefecture | Vannes | ||
| Subprefectures | Lorient Pontivy |
||
| Government | |||
| • President of the General Council | Joseph-François Kergueris | ||
| Area1 | |||
| • Total | 6,823 km2 (2,634.4 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2007) | |||
| • Total | 702,487 | ||
| • Rank | 32nd | ||
| • Density | 103/km2 (266.7/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Department number | 56 | ||
| Arrondissements | 3 | ||
| Cantons | 42 | ||
| Communes | 261 | ||
| ^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2 | |||
Morbihan (French pronunciation: [mɔʁbi.ɑ̃]; Breton: Mor-Bihan) is a department in Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (small sea in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline.
Contents |
Morbihan is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from a part of the Duchy of Brittany. It is the only French department which has no French name; the word Morbihan is Breton. It is also the only department in France which has kept its original name.
Morbihan is part of the current region of Brittany and is surrounded by the departments of Finistère, Côtes-d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Atlantique, and the Atlantic Ocean on the southwest.
The Gulf of Morbihan has many islands: 365 according to legend, but, in reality, between 30 and 40, according to how they are counted. There are also many islets which are too small to be built on. Of these islands, all but two are private: l'Île aux Moines and l'Île D'Arz. The others are privately owned, some by movie stars or fashion designers.
In the department of Morbihan, but outside the Gulf, there are four inhabited islands:
The Breton language is an important issue, with many advocating bilingual education.
The painter Raymond Wintz (1884–1956) depicted locations around the Gulf of Morbihan.