AVRANCHES

town and port, Manche dpartement, Basse-Normandie rgion, northwestern France, on a hill (341 feet ) overlooking the Se Estuary. The celebrated sanctuary of Mont-Saint-Michel (q.v.) is situated on a rock in the bay. Important under the Romans, Avranches retained its position under the Norman dukes. In 1172 the excommunicated Henry II of England received absolution in Avranches for the murder of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, and made public penance before the cathedral (razed as unsafe in 1794). The paving stone on which he knelt is marked by chains on a little square locally called La Plate-forme. In 1639 Avranches was the centre of the peasants' Nu-Pieds (Barefoot) revolt against the salt tax. The museum contains incunabula and 8th- and 15th-century manuscripts from the abbey on Mont-Saint-Michel. In July 1944 the U.S. 3rd Army under General George S. Patton broke out of the Normandy pocket there. A monument to Patton stands on soil and amid trees brought from America. Avranches, centre for the marketing of the region's cattle, sheep, and fish, also manufactures knit goods and copperware. Pop. (1982) 9,462.