Orne (; or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.[department in north-western ]France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
Geography
The commune is made up of the following collection of villages and hamlets, La Pacotière, La Bondière, Les Buissons, Les Pasquières, Les Genétés, La Balonnière, La Haguerie, Messei, La Cheminière, Le Gué, La Bruyère and La Merrie.Varenne
Varenne (foaled in Copparo, Italy, 19 May 1995) is a dark bay racing trotter by Waikiki Beach out of Ialmaz by Zebu.
Varenne is considered to be the best trotter of all time. No other trotter has won so many of the most important races in th ...
, La Vere and a stream called the Blanche-Lande. The source of the river Varenne is in Messei.
Notable buildings and places
National heritage sites
The commune has one building listed as a Monument historique
() is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...
, which are the remains of the old 11th-century castle in Messei and listed in 1975.
Notable People
*Foulques du Merle
Foulques or Foucaud du Merle (died 1314) was a Marshal of France. He was French nobility, Seigneur of Gacé and Bellou-en-Houlme, and Baron of Le Merlerault, Briouze and Messei.
Du Merle was the son of Guillaume VI du Merle and Marie de Nollent. ...
- (1239 - 1314) was Seigneur
A seigneur () or lord is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of ...
of Gacé
Gacé () is a Communes of France, commune in the Orne Departments of France, department in Lower-Normandy, north-western France. The commune is part of the area known as Pays d'Auge.
Geography
The commune is made up of the following collection ...
and Bellou-en-Houlme
Bellou-en-Houlme is a commune in the Orne department in northwestern France.
Geography
The commune is made up of the following collection of villages and hamlets, La Forêterie,Laubesnière, Le Val du Breuil, La Longrais,Le Clos,Le Pont and B ...
, and Baron of Le Merlerault, Briouze
Briouze () is a Communes of France, commune in the Orne department of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in northwestern France. It is considered the capital of the ''pays d'Houlme'' at the western end of the Orne in the Norman bocage.
W ...
and Messei.
*Émile Deshayes de Marcère
Émile-Louis-Gustave Deshayes de Marcère (16 March 1828 – 26 April 1918) was a French politician.
Marcère was a deputy in the National Assembly from 1871 to 1884. In 1876 and 1878, he was Minister of the Interior, continuing in post for a f ...
(1828-1918) - last surviving senator for life
A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , five Italian senators out of 205, two out of the 41 Burundian senators, one Congolese senator out of 109, and all members of the Bri ...
of the Third Republic was Mayor here, and later died here.
See also
*Communes of the Orne department
The following is a list of the 381 communes of the Orne department of France.
The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2025):
References
Communes of Orne
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