Coutances occupies a hilltop so obviously strategic that it was flourishing long before the Romans came.
It was by that time the capital of a tribe called the Unelli. Under Constantius Chlorus, in 298 AD, it received the name Constantia.
(The peninsula on which it stands was named Pagus Constantinus, later Cotentin.) The town was destroyed by Normans in 866,
then became part of the Duchy of Normandy in 933. It was pretty much destroyed again by allied bombers on D-Day,
and had the distinction, on July 17 1944, of being the first place on which the USAAF used napalm. . Rebuilt, some of it in
unfortunate 1950s concrete, it remains a lovely, lovely town. The sight of Coutances from afar is breathtaking, with the three
churches – St. Nicolas, the Cathedral and St. Pierre – crowning the long ridge.