Morbihan

Morbihan is a département in the northwest of France named after the Morbihan (small sea in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline.

History

Morbihan was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Brittany.

Geography

Morbihan is part of the current région of Bretagne and is surrounded by the departments of Finistère, Côte-d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Atlantique, and the Atlantic Ocean on the southwest.

In the Gulf of Morbihan are many inhabited islands. The most important is the "île aux moines".

In the department of Morbihan, but outside the Gulf, there are four inhabited islands:

• Belle Île
• Groix
• Houat
• Hoëdic

• Meaban, on which there is an ornithological preserve is uninhabited.

Culture

The Breton language is an important issue, with many advocating bilingual education.

Tourism

The megalithic alignments of Carnac are situated in Morbihan.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Morbihan".