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Côtes-d'Armor (Department, France)

Aodoù-an-Arvor

Last modified: 2023-11-11 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: côtes-d'armor |
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[Flag]

Flag of Côtes-d'Armor - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 21 November 2021

See also:

Administrative data

Code: 22
Region: Bretagne
Traditional provinces: Brittany (traditional Breton provinces of Goëllo-Penthièvre and Trégor)
Bordering departments: Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan

Area: 6,878 km2
Population (2016): 598,953 inhabitants

Préfecture: Saint-Brieuc
Sous-préfectures: Dinan, Guingamp, Lannion
Subdivisions: 4 arrondissements, 27 cantons, 356 municipalities.

As requested by the General Council in 1962, the department changed on 27 February 1790 its name from Côtes-du-Nord (North Coasts) to Côtes-d'Armor. In Breton, armor, "the sea", was used to name all parts of Brittany close to the coasts, as opposed to argoat, "the land", used to name the inner parts of the country.

Ivan Sache, 11 April 2019

Flag of the department

In 1985, the Alexandre agency created a rectangular logo, which was adopted the same year as the flag of the department of Côtes-du-Nord.
Blue symbolizes sea while green symbolizes land, the white "stripe" representing a stylized seagull and also the outline of the coast. The flag is always used without letterings.
When the name of the departement changed in 1990, the flag remained unchanged, a car sticker was offerred to all voters of the department, and every town hall was offerred a 1.20 x 1.80 m flag. The operation has been very successful so that the flag is now seen all over the departement.
[Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours [rau98]]

Ivan Sache, 8 September 2002

The flag of Côtes d'Armor is widely seen in the department, for example: photo from this page (departmental council, 2021), photo (Lamballe, 2018), photo (Ploufragan, 2018), photo (Binic-Étables-sur-Mer, 2016), photo (Perros-Guirec, 2018), photo (Saint-Quay-Portrieux, 2011), photo (Plérin, 2012).

Olivier Touzeau , 21 November 2021

Variant flags with full logo

[Variant flag]         [Variant flag]         [Variant flag]

Variant logo flags observed in use in the department - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 21 November 2021

The plain blue and green flag with a white coast is often seen in use in front of the city halls in the department, but besides some variants with text are in use:

  • white cartouche added with the name of the department in black letter on the official logo font. Example: photo, in Le Quiou, 2021.

  • lower part of the former departmental logo before 2015, on a white field. Examples: photo, in Trélivan, 2011; photo, in Saint-Brieuc, 2018.

  • flags edited in 2021 for the stage of the Tour de France in the department, and given to the inhabitants by the departmental council. Elements are added vertically in the hoist: current logo of the departmental council and the sentence "Offert par le Conseil départemental" (given by the departmental council). This advertising flag combines a part of the former general council logo and the current departemental council logo... See photo and photo (source).

Olivier Touzeau , 21 November 2021

Erroneous variant flags observed in use

[Former flag]         [Flag]

Erroneous variant flags observed in use - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 21 November 2021

Thevariant flags seen in use in front of the city halls are sometimes errneous (examples: erro in the drawing of the coastline; bad font)

  • drawing extended to the edges,white stripe outlined in black on the four sides with the name of the department in the official font of the former departmental logo before 2015, the white drawing of the coast making an erroneous point in the middle of the flag, as on its depiction on wikipedia. Indeed, the former logo of the general concil is erroneously shown on wikipedia with a point in the coast line. Besides, the wikipedia representation has a black line above the name of the departement, as if it were in a closed rectangle, while this line did not exist on the official logo (see the real logo here) . This is probably the source for some of the flags observed, made after this unofficial source. Examples: photo (Saint-Quay Portrieux, 2019), photo (Saint-Quay Portrieux, 2018).

  • addition of a white stripe with the name of the department in a sans-serif font. Example: photo, observed seen in Lannion, 2013)

Olivier Touzeau , 21 November 2021

Former, unofficial flag of the department

[Former flag]

Former, unofficial flag of the department - Image by Jaume Ollé, 8 September 2002

In the 1960s, Mr Morvan, the Head of the Technical Center of the municipality of Saint-Brieuc, designed a flag of the department of Côtes-du-Nord.
The flag has a yellow border and is horizontally divided blue-white by a zigzag line. The line represents the coast of the department, the central triangle symbolizing Bay of Saint-Brieuc. The six ermine spots placed in the white field symbolize Brittany.

Manufactured in 2 m x 2.50 m size, the width of the yellow border being 10 cm, the flag was used, unofficially, only in Saint-Brieuc, in public places. Its main use was associated with the Foire des Côtes-du-Nord, a fair organized each year in September. The flag was seen there for the last time in 1994.

Source: Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours [rau98]
[Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours [rau98]]

Ivan Sache, 8 September 2002