When you think of French beaches, the sparkling Cote d’Azur first springs to
mind. Move your gaze up the map slightly, and let them rest on France’s
northern coast, whose villages and ports were once the leisure spots of
Paris’s high society. Puff Daddy and his ilk may holiday in its southern
sister, but Napoleon III and his entourage preferred the north.
Dotting the coast, just two hours from Paris are several beautiful harbour
towns, the showpieces of which are Deauville, and only slightly further
along, the literarily mythic Cabourg. Don’t be put off by the fact that
these resort towns are situated on our humble English Channel rather than a
more exotic body of water – this side belongs to La France, and, bien
sur, everything is steeped in elegance.
Les grands hotels
The elegant epicentres of these two towns are Les Grands Hotels, The
Royal Barrière in Deauville and Le
Grand Hotel in Cabourg. They are magnificent Belle Époque structures
that abut the sea, pastel façades intimating Versailles, swooping windows
and looming entrances in high Beaux-Arts style.
In both hotels, vaulted ceilings are propped up by gleaming rows of marble
columns whorled with yellow and umber tones. At the arched entrances to
opulent sitting rooms, swathes of fabric fall from the ceiling coloured an
ochre that intimates the sand dunes. In every corner sits a richly
upholstered fainting couch – a necessary feature for the corseted guests of
its heyday – and mirrored panels reflect the ornate chandeliers. Intimate
tables nestle close to the floor-to-ceiling windows that line the rooms.
These casements reveal how these two mansions differ from any other
experience of Belle Époque grandeur: out of the four-metre tall panelled
glass windows – flung open on fair weather days – is the blue expanse of the
sea, improbably natural and free when juxtaposed to the ornate contrivances
of the hotels’ interiors.
A literary past
Cabourg distinguishes itself from its coastal fellows through the legacy of a
distinguished guest: Marcel Proust. Within Cabourg’s Grand Hotel, Proust
penned his famous novel La Recherché du Temps Perdu (“The
Remembrance of Things Past”). In truth, the book, which scrutinises the
private agonies of the families of France’s leisure class, is less a work of
fiction than the observation of the occupants of Le Grand Hotel at le fin de
siècle. Proust spent seven summers here, the only place where his
chronically weak lungs found respite.
It’s curious that in its nearly 200-year history, this one guest defined
Cabourg’s identity; the town has named numerous streets after the author and
characters from his works, and hosts a yearly Proust convention with
visitors from around the world. You can even choose to stay in the Marcel
Proust room, kitted out to the exact specifications of the author’s written
descriptions of his sojourn, or browse the aptly named antiquities shop La
Recherché de Temps Perdu.
Stylish eating
Cabour's Grand Hotel also has a lovely restaurant that you needn’t be staying
at the hotel to enjoy. Proust code-named the Cabourg/Deauville “Balbec” and
the Grand Hotel’s restaurant bears that name. It offers a sumptuous set meal
reasonably priced at £30. Sitting scarcely ten metres from the briny deep in
its crystal chandeliered confines, it would be beneath one to order anything
four-footed. Begin with the langoustines bedded in mango, and continue to
“Le Classique Francais”, brown butter-rich sole Meuniere, with tender
asparagus and artichokes. Calvados, a spirit made from local apples is a
regional specialty, a tipple (or six) of this is necessary to finish off any
meal, as are slivers of local cheeses brought around on a wheeled “chariot”
for your delectation.
The horse is king
Back in Deauville, there are more than literary diversions on offer. The town
is a mix of Belle Époque buildings and Norman half-timbered houses, lovingly
preserved through the ages, with many converted into bed and breakfasts. The
tourism board proudly declares that, “In Deauville, the horse is king!” and
two race tracks, Le
Deauville-Clairefontaine and Hippodrome Deauville-La Touques - built in
1862 by the Duke de Mornay, Napoleon III’s half-brother who is credited with
making the entire region fashionable. Together there are over 200 races a
year here. Not bad for a town with a non-tourist population of under 5,000.
