Lannion is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a subprefecture of Côtes-d'Armor, the capital of Trégor and the center of an urban area of almost 60,000 inhabitants.PopulationInhabitants of Lannion are called lannionnais in French.HistoryLannion takes its name from "Lann Huon" in Breton or "Land of Huon" in English. Most of the area indeed used to belong to Lord Huon.The old quarter of Lannion attracts many tourists to the city. The old quarter contains old squares, a church called Brélévenez, half-timbered houses, chapels and frescoes.Breton languageOn 23 October 2006, the municipality launched a plan to promote the Breton language through the Ya d'ar brezhoneg ("Yes to Breton") charter.In 2008, 11.96% of the children attended bilingual schools in primary education.EconomyLannion is a large telecommunications research center in France with several firms such as Alcatel-Lucent, Orange and SAGEMCOM operating there. The presence of a large telecommunications industry in the area has led to two institutes of technology in the area, IUT Lannion and a college of engineering, ENSSAT.