Granville

 municipality, draw only border

Granville is a commune in the Manche department and region of Normandy in north-western France. Chef-lieu of the canton of Granville and seat of the Communauté de communes de Granville, Terre et Mer [fr], it is a seaside resort and health resort of Mont Saint-Michel Bay at the end of the Côte des Havres [fr], a former cod fishing port and the first shellfish port of France. It is sometimes nicknamed "Monaco of the north" by virtue of its location on a rocky promontory.
The town was founded by a vassal of William the Conqueror, on land occupied by the Vikings, in the 11th century. The old privateer city and fortification, for the defence of Mont Saint-Michel, became a seaside resort in the 19th century which was frequented by many artists, and equipped with a golf course and a horse racing course. Home of the Dior family [fr] of industrialists, an important commune which absorbed the village of Saint-Nicolas-près-Granville in 1962, port and airport of South Manche, it has also been a Douzelage city since 1991, twinned with 20 European cities. Administratively, the islands of Chausey, which include a small harbour, are part of the commune of Granville.