Locality

Coutances

Name: Coutances
Address: Coutances, Lower Normandy, 50200, FR

28 íbúar mæla með,

Ábendingar heimamanna

Jon

June 2, 2020

Nearest town...ten minutes away. Lovely botanical gardens, cathedral

Lachlan

August 13, 2019

Coutances sits on a 700 million year old volcano! The soil from which has allowed the creation of some wonderful gardens here. Once called Cosedia, the capital of the Celtic Unelles, it was renamed Constantia in the 4th century AD, in homage to the Roman emperor Flavius Constantius Chlorus (father of Constantine the Great). Variations of the name appeared at various times: Constantia (~400), Constances (1210), Coustances (1283 and again in 1437), Constances (1497 and 1608), Coutances (1631). Roman name derivation is rare in France. Although a great many cities and towns were founded, named or re-named by the Romans when they occupied Gaul (France) for around 500 years from the time Julius Caesar finally defeated Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, most lost their Roman titles after the Romans left. When the Romans left in 486 AD , most city names were often changed to reflect the names of the Gallic tribes that occupied that region. Some (such as our local town of Hambye) have Frankish names after the Franks took over Gaul in the power vacuum left after the Romans departed. Coutances, however, retained its Roman name, probably in deference to its Christian connotations - Christianity having taken hold in most of the empire. (If you get to the Scriptorial in Avranches you will see how easy it would be have been for a scribe to mistake an ‘n’ for ‘u’ when transcribing a text - hence the change from Constances to Coustances to Coutances).

Naomi

August 11, 2019

Impressive 13th century Norman cathedral and the town is nice place to wander around (good shops, bars and restaurants).

Julia

June 12, 2016

Art, Theatre, Music, Open gardens, Museum, Gothic Cathedral, An abundance of Restaurants.Whether you like fine dining of a bowl of moule et frites you will enjoy. Shopping and much more.

Lesley

January 2, 2016

Lovely town with a cathedral set in the main square. Many restaurants, bars and shops. Activities include ice skating, bowling, annual jazz festival, theatre, cinema and swimming pool.