Le Passous, what a story! | Coutances Tourisme : Organisez vos vacances dans la Manche

If we take a look at the layout of Agon-Coutainville, it’s a long avenue that starts from the village of Agon, skirting a few agricultural plots and a number of pavilions, and plunges into the deep blue sea via the Passous cove at Coutainville-Plage. By the way, perhaps along the way you’ll come across the charming “Pindagon family” along this avenue (at the junction with rue Eugène Fontaine)? This family, ambassadors for the resort (and a bit special… since they’re made of Douglas fir!), took up residence here in 2019, and are the contemporary work of Parisian sculptor Claude Mayet.

The square colloquially known as “Le Passous” is in fact the Place Édouard Leroux – surrounded by restaurants, bars, craftsmen and seaside boutiques – which is particularly lively in summer.with restaurants, bars, craftsmen and seaside boutiques – is particularly lively in summer. It’s the scene of numerous events, which are renewed every year:

All summer long, you’ll find the Thursday morning market,
The ” Hissez les voix! “open to all, in August (since 2010), in partnership with the famous TV show The Voice, to elect the most beautiful voice in the Passous!
One of the key stopping points for the famous ” Enduro des Sables ” foot race, which will be held for the 41st time in August 2024!
The August funfair, featuring rides, music, sweets and children’s laughter…

Ask any true Agonais-Coutainvillais and they’ll tell you that “Passous” isn’t just a square. Rather, it’s a century-old neighborhood that extends beyond the simple avenue that bears its name, from the dike running from the Cale du Passous to the sailing school, and encompasses the Camping les Mouettes, as well as a number of residential streets. The name Passous comes from the Norman patois pronunciation of “passage”, which the inhabitants used to walk between the village of Agon and the mielle (hill). Agon and the mielle (a sandy hill covered with maritime plants), which separated two ponds, the two “Essays”, of which all that remains today is the Mare de l’Essay leisure park. Old-timers will also recall that the Passous district was the stronghold of “Tonton Guy”, Guy Leclerc, who for decades perpetuated the exploitation of Agon’s wooden fisheries.You can learn more about the millennia-old history of Agon-Coutainville’s wooden fisheries, “Charlotte” and “Pierrette”, in the brochure “Des pêcheries en bois” (“Wooden fisheries” ). In particular, you can discover the secrets of this local material heritage by taking part in Anton’s Balade, where you’ll be invited to tour the oyster and mussel beds and ” La Petite” – the last remaining fishery at Agon-Coutainville, and by signing up for a visit to the “La Maillard” fishery at Hauteville-sur-Mer in the company of its ambassador Jean-Claude Lepeu. From the Passous dike, you can observe at low tide the “roques du Passous” or “Passous rocks” – according to the Norman language used! -all more or less visible and affectionately bearing their own little names, “Rocher de Baleine”, “Les Tannières”, “La Roque”, “La Ronde”, “La Salouze”Les Oiseaux”, among many others… They are made of phtanite, black in color and covered with algae, which can sometimes be recognized in old Agonais buildings.

La Balade d'Anton website

Le Passous hasn’t always been one of the liveliest squares in the Coutainville seaside resort we know today! The construction of the 3km-long seawall lining the Coutainville beach dates back only to recent history and the emergence of seaside resorts with the boom in tourism at the end of the 19th century. The seawall has been constantly rebuilt and lengthened (in 1929, 1975 and 1998) in response to adverse weather conditions and the resort’s development as a tourist destination. Even in the 50s, when kelp – a collection of seaweed and goed washed up by the sea at low tide – was harvested by farmers on the Brittany and Normandy coasts to feed their livestock and their land, there was no slipway or dyke at Passous.to reach the beach… To find out more about the emergence of the seaside resort of Agon-Coutainville, don’t hesitate to book yourbook your “Coutainville balnéaire” summer tour at one of our 6 Tourist Information Offices or directly via our online ticketing service.

> To say goodbye on a poetic note, let yourself be entertained by Allain Leprest’s “Passous-Cotentin” from January, performed by Francesca Solleville in the video opposite!