MANCHE

dpartement, Basse-Normandie rgion, northwestern France, with a 200-mile (320-kilometre) coastline on the English Channel (French: La Manche) embracing the Cotentin peninsula. Its capital is Saint-L (q.v.). The Manche area comprises several districts that were part of the historic province of Normandy (q.v.). Its west coast, facing the Channel Islands, stretches southward from the Cape of La Hague to the area near Avranches and Mont-Saint-Michel, where it turns westward. The 40-mile (64-kilometre) coast east from the Cape of La Hague to Point Barfleur contains the seaport and harbour of Cherbourg, the largest town in Manche. The east coast stretches down to Utah Beach, scene of one of the American landings in the Normandy Invasion during World War II, and to the tidal flat of Grand Vey at the base of the peninsula. The land is marshy and low-lying between the Cotentin peninsula and the rest of the dpartement, which contains the hilly Bocage Normand farmland. Trees are ubiquitous in the bocage country, which consists of a patchwork of small fields bounded by hedges. The forested southeast around Mortain is especially picturesque. Some of the finest coastal scenery lies around the Cape of La Hague. Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue is noted for its oyster beds. Coutances, southwest of Saint-L, was seriously damaged in June 1944, but its fine Gothic cathedral was restored. Just inland from the coast north of Coutances stands the abbey church of Lessay, an outstanding example of Romanesque architecture, which was similarly damaged but was later restored. Mont-Saint-Michel, with its picturesque Gothic abbey on a rocky islet attached to the shore by a long causeway, is a great tourist attraction. On the west coast, Granville, overlooked by its fortified old town on a rocky promontory, is a seaside resort. West of Cherbourg, at La Hague, is France's first uranium waste treatment plant. The predominantly maritime climate is mild, damp, and regular, with 150 to 175 days of rain a year. The dpartement is almost entirely devoted to agriculture, particularly cattle raising, dairy farming, and apple growing. Industry (metalworks, textile production, the reprocessing of nuclear waste, and the building of nuclear-powered submarines) is concentrated chiefly in the Cherbourg region. The dpartement has four arrondissements: Avranches, Cherbourg, Coutances, and Saint-L. Area 2,293 square miles (5,938 square km). Pop. (1990) 479,896; (1994 est.) 483,352.