Lorient

Lorient
	Commune of Lorient
	An Oriant
	Yachting harbour
	Location
Coordinates	47°44′48″N 3°21′53″W / 47.74667°N 3.36472°W
Administration
Country	France
Region	Bretagne
Department	Morbihan
Arrondissement	Lorient
Intercommunality	Pays de Lorient
Mayor	Norbert Métairie; (2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation	0–46 m (0–150 ft)
Land area1	17.48 km2 (6.75 sq mi)
Population2	59,189 (1999)
- Density	3,386 /km² (8,770 /sq mi)
	Miscellaneous
Postal code	56100
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
	2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

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This article is about the city of Lorient in Brittany, France. For other uses, see Lorient (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 47°44′48″N 3°21′53″W / 47.74667°N 3.36472°W / 47.74667; -3.36472

Lorient, or L'Orient, (Breton: An Oriant) is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in northwestern France.

[edit] Demographics

Inhabitants of Lorient are called Lorientais.

Population: city: 61,844; urban area: 186,144. Lorient is the most populous commune in Morbihan, although the capital is the slightly smaller commune of Vannes.

[edit] Breton language

The municipality launched a linguistic plan through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on January the 25th of 2007.

In 2007, there was 3,5% of the children attended the bilingual schools in primary education.^[1]

[edit] History

At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis. They later built additional warehouses across the bay in 1628, at the location which became known as L'Orient (the Orient in French). Later, the French East India Company, founded in 1664 and chartered by King Louis XIV, established shipyards there, thus giving an impetus to the development of the city.

In attempts to destroy German submarine pens (U-boat bases) and their supply lines, most of this city was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II (see section below). Thus, today's Lorient reflects an architectural style of the 1950s.

[edit] Geography

Lorient is located on the south coast of Brittany on the Atlantic Ocean. The rivers Blavet and Scorff enter the Atlantic Ocean at Lorient.

[edit] Industry

Lorient has a major fishing port, Port de Pêche (Breton: Porzh Pesketa), at Keroman and the docks area at Kergroise handle large cargo and passenger ships.

Tourism plays an important part in the cities' economy and there are several large yachting marinas around the bay. The annual Festival Interceltique de Lorient was founded in Lorient in 1971 and attracts large numbers of tourists to the area every summer.

Lorient was a former base of the French Navy but these piers, docks, etc., have now been removed. However, many important former French naval buildings remain around the quayside.

Lorient South Brittany Airport is situated just west of the city at Lann Bihoue, and it has direct flights to several destinations, such as to Paris.

[edit] Keroman Submarine Base

Media related to Keroman submarine base, Lorient at Wikimedia Commons

The former submarine base at Keroman
47°43′40″N 3°22′3″W / 47.72778°N 3.3675°W

Lorient was the location of a German U-boat (submarine) base during World War II. Although the city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing raids, this naval base survived through to the end of the war. Lorient was held until May 1945 by the Nazi German army, even though this city was surrounded by the American Army, since the Germans there refused to surrender.

Since they could not destroy the base and its submarine pens, the Allies had decided to flatten the city and port of Lorient, in order to cut the supply lines to the U-boat bases. Without fuel, resupplies of weapons (e.g. torpedoes), and provisions, it became impossible for those U-boats to return to war patrols in the Atlantic Ocean. Between 14 January 1943 and 17 February 1943, as many as 500 high-explosive aerial bombs and more than 60,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Lorient. The city was almost completely destroyed, with nearly 90% of the city flattened. Thousands of French civilians, as well as German military and naval men, were killed.

Presently, the former U-boat base of Keroman is open to the public, and it can be visited year-round. During the tours, the submarine pens of block K3 can be seen. Its roof (3.40 m to 7.0 meters of steel-reinforced concrete) can be visited, as well as a former anti-aircraft tower on top of the U-boat base. The tower affords an excellent view of the harbor and of the former headquarters of the Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz of the Kriegsmarine (Nazi German navy) across the bay at Larmor-Plage.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Lorient was the birthplace of:

Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau (1769-1832), sailor, adventurer, and Grand Mandarin in Vietnam.

Jules Simon (1814-1896), statesman and philosopher.

Lorient is the home of a major Celtic music festival, the Festival Interceltique de Lorient.
Lorient is the home of FC Lorient Bretagne Sud whose stadium, Stade du Moustoir, is in the city centre.
In the 2006 Tour de France, Lorient hosted the end of Stage 8.
In Medal of Honor: Frontline, a level takes place in Lorient.