Orne

Orne
—  Department  —
Coat of arms
Location of Orne in France
Coordinates: 48°42′N 00°00′E / 48.7°N 0°E / 48.7; 0Coordinates: 48°42′N 00°00′E / 48.7°N 0°E / 48.7; 0
Country	France
Region	Basse-Normandie
Prefecture	Alençon
Subprefectures	Argentan Mortagne-au-Perche
Government
• President of the General Council	Alain Lambert (UMP)
Area1
• Total	6,103 km2 (2,356.4 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Total	292,609
• Rank	73rd
• Density	47.9/km2 (124.2/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Department number	61
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	40
Communes	505
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Orne (French pronunciation: [ɔʁn]) is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne.

History

Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche.

Geography

Orne is in the region of Basse-Normandie neighbouring Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Sarthe, Mayenne, and Calvados. It is the only department of Basse Normandie and Haute Normandie to be landlocked.

Economy

The largest town by a considerable margin is the prefecture, Alençon which is an administrative and commercial centre for what is still an overwhelmingly rural department. There are no large industrial centres: agriculture remains the economic focus of Orne.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Ornais.

The recorded population level peaked at 443,688 in 1836. Declining farm incomes and the lure of better prospects in the overseas empire led to a sustained reduction in population levels in many rural departments, and by the time of the 1936 census the recorded population stood at just 269,331. Once motor car ownership started to surge in the 1960s employment opportunities became less restricted and by 2008 the population level had recovered a little to 292,282.

The two major cities in the Orne are Alençon, the prefecture, and Flers, who deserved to be subprefecture.

Culture

Alençon is the chief town of the Orne department.

Camembert, the village where Camembert cheese is made, is located in Orne.

The local dialect is known as Augeron.

See also

• Cantons of the Orne department
• Communes of the Orne department
• Arrondissements of the Orne department
• Orne River
• St. Andre sur Orne
• La Mansonnière cave

External links

Normandy portal

• (French) Prefecture website
• (French) General Council website
• (English) Orne at the Open Directory Project

• (English) Orne Tourism