^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Cesson-Sévigné (Municipality, Ille-et-Vilaine, France)

Saozon-Sevigneg

by Pascal Vagnat

Presentation of the city
Description of the flag

See also:

Presentation of the city

Cesson-Sévigné is a city of 16,000 inhabitants, located on the river Vilaine, a few kilometers east of Rennes, The Breton name of the city is Saozon-Sevigneg. The science and technology park Atalante is partially located in Cesson-Sévigné. Its main area of research is telecommunications.

The city is named after two feudal families mentioned for the first time in the XIth century. The official name of Cesson-Sévigné was acknowledged in 1921.

In 1644, Henri de Sévigné married Marie de Rabutin-Chantal (1629-1696), later famous as Madame la Marquise de Sévigné. Henri died seven years later in a duel and Madame de Sévigné never married again. Her beloved daughter Françoise-Marguerite married in 1669 Count de Grignan, Leutenant-General of Provence, and moved with him to Provence two years later. Between 1671 and 1696, Madame de Sévigné wrote more than 1,500 letters, mostly to her daughter. She wrote the same way she spoke, that is with a very lively style. Her letters were a mixture of Court gossip columns, confidences, fears, jokes and literary criticism. She spent only a limited part of her life in the court of Versailles, where she was isolated due to her unfailing support to Surintendant Fouquet, Louis XIV's rival and victim. However, her letters give a very interesting picture of the ordinary life in the Court (as opposed to the other great memorialist of that time, Saint-Simon, who was much more interested in the corridors of power). Madame de Sévigné's letters became rapidly popular and were rapidly disseminated everywhere, some of them receiving a nickname related to their content.

Ivan Sache, 20 October 2002

Description of the flag

The flag of Cesson-Sévigné is a square white field with the municipal coat of arms in the middle, flanked by four ermine spots. The name of the city is written below the shield.
The municipal arms of Cesson-Sévigné are those of Roland de Cucé (1346), another local feudal lord.

Ivan Sache, 20 October 2002