The town of Sées is part of the Normandie-Maine Regional Nature Park, next to the Écouves forest. Its name would come from a Gallic tribe, the Sagii, who settled near the sources of the Orne. A legend says that a golden rooster crowed at midnight, thus ensuring great wealth to the village. In the Middle Ages, its reputation attracted the Vikings, who plundered it regularly. Faced with the urgency to regroup to defend themselves, three villages merged: Bourg-l'Évêque, which surrounds the cathedral, Bourg-le-Comte, defended by a wooden tower of the Count of Alençon, and Bourg-l'Abbé, which circles the Saint-Martin abbey.