Municipality of Vierville-sur-Mer
Municipal Information - Bulletin N°9 - December 2006 - "http://vierville.free.fr"
The Mayor's Word
On May 24, 2006, the Prefect of Calvados signed, at the request of the Communauté de Communes de Trévières, an order authorizing the extension of his powers, in the name of Community interest. Of the twenty-five member municipalities, only six municipal councils opposed it, including that of Vierville, but in vain since they did not represent a majority.
In view of the powers already taken since 2001, our municipal council considered that the Community of Municipalities was not sufficiently committed to the Commune of Vierville; it is enough to note the poor maintenance of the roadways, the abandonment of sidewalk repairs, the refusal to undertake a technical and financial assistance action to bring individual sanitation facilities into compliance, the refusal to open a summer permanence of the tourist office in Vierville, to be able to be able to this. All these interventions would cost too much to the community of municipalities!!! ...
What will happen on January 1, 2007 when these new competences are extended to spatial planning, collection and treatment of household waste, and unilateral decision-making on road work to be carried out? Why always look for more skills at the expense of the decision-making and implementation power of municipal councils? Increasing the tax burden in order to finance the operating costs of this new administrative structure, and asking municipalities to lower theirs, is similar to a flight forward!
I remain attached to the founding principles of the Intercommunalités: they aimed to federate energies and pool resources to create new equipment. The construction of new classrooms recently commissioned at the Trévières public primary school is a good fit for this project approach. We are all happy about this achievement; it brings comfort and safety to students, therefore better schooling conditions, and offers a good quality work environment for teachers. Everything that compits to giving our children more luck is to be encouraged, for themselves but also as a guarantee of hope to maintain life in our villages.
Solidarity towards the younger generations, solidarity between the municipalities, solidarity in our municipality among all its inhabitants, solidarity quite simply, for the well-being of all and the happiness of everyone, these are the wishes that I form and that I address to you on behalf of the municipal council, the municipal staff and in my own name. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year 2007!
Jean-Marie Oxéant
About census
The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies will carry out in 2007, with the help of the municipality, the census of the population of Vierville-sur-Mer. A census agent has been recruited: Mrs. Lechevalier will begin her task in mid-January (see attached letter). While waiting to learn about the result of this survey, let's look at the past decades:
----In 1999, 237 inhabitants---- ----In 1962, 290 hab.---- ----In 1946, 326 hab.---- ----In 1921, 350 hab.----
----In 1886, 412 hab.---- ----In 1846, 367 hab. ---- ----In 1806, 331 hab.
Over two centuries, the demographic curve of Vierville did not differ from that of the West of Bessin. After an expansion in the 19th century, it declined in the period of the industrial revolution with the beginning of the rural exodus. The population is increasingly towards cities, industrial centers, abandoning a countryside where agricultural manual work is mechanized. The effects of this exodus were felt until the 1970s = decrease in the number of farms and plowing of meadows (this profound transformation of the agricultural world is not completed), disappearance of a large number of small trades, especially all those that depended on the massive use of the draft horse, greater mobility of rural people, decrease in the number of children in families and finally, aging of the population.
Will the attraction that the countryside seems to exert today as a place of life be strong enough to maintain an active population there?
Answer in a few months!
The site of Omaha Beach was classified as a national heritage by decree of August 23, 2006.
This classification is important, it has consequences on the entire classified territory, of which the landscape must no longer be modified, unless special authorization.
You can consult in the town hall the plan that defines the classified areas where:
- 1 - The conservation of the landscape becomes of general interest.
- 2 - Normal and operating maintenance work is always allowed
- 3 - The site must no longer be modified or destroyed, unless specially authorized.
- 4 - The special modifications authorizations of the site must
- Comply with all other regulatory provisions: Building Permit, POS, PLU, Prior Declaration of Works and Fences, Coastal Law, etc.
- Respect the iming necessity of the requested modification
- Respect a quality in terms of landscape issues and the best possible location
- Respect the support measures necessary for the integration of the modification in the site
It is likely that all the deadlines of the usual formalities will be extended. Indeed:the Minister of the Environment is competent to sign the special authorizations, after consulting the Architect of the Buildings of France, the DIREN and the Departmental Site Commission. For simplified procedures (prior declarations and closures) this competence is delegated to the Prefect, after the advice of the Architect of the Buildings of France.
Isolated camping, isolated caravan parking, the creation of campsites and caravans, posting and advertising become prohibited on the classified site.
The signs are authorized by the Mayor after agreement of the Architect of the Buildings of France.
derogatory pre-signs are prohibited, unless they meet the following 4 additional conditions:
- The reported activity must be an emergency service or a service set back from the public road
- The pre-sign must be in an agglomeration
- The reported activity must be carried out on the site
- Only one pre-sign can be authorized on the site
No expropriation for public utility may be initiated before observations of the Minister in charge of Sites.
No rights likely to modify the appearance or character of the premises may be acquired by prescription.
No easement can be established without the approval of the Minister in charge of the sites.
Strewing of the West - East crossing of the village
The project entrusted to the DDE has been specified, it should be carried out at the end of winter 2007, with the objective of securing traffic and improving the appearance of the village.
It is planned in particular: The materialization of the east and west entrances of the agglomeration, with ground marking and narrowing of the roadway.
In the vicinity of these entrances, installation of sidewalk edges or wooden poles to better visualize the roadway in the agglomeration, and establishment of plantations.
Materialization of car parking in front of the tennis and in front of the grocery store.
Municipal Subdivision (Guerberue district)
After consulting the companies, the work will be carried out during the winter of 2007, and the 4 building plots will be put up for sale at the end of January by the Municipality at a price of 40,000 euros per plot.
Several private building plots should be put up for sale in the same neighborhood, thus enhancing the development work carried out by the municipality.
Advance of POS revision projects and a new first aid station
The classification of the Omaha Site now being acquired, the City Council has decided to launch the revision of the Land Use Plan which will be transformed into a Local Urban Planning Plan. The municipality will call on a design firm to ensure the project management of this approach, and will ensure the assistance of the Council in Architecture, Urban Planning and Environment, an organization subsidized by the General Council.
A bit of history of Vierville:: VIERVILLE DURING THE FIRST YEARS OF OCCUPATION
Here are some excerpts from letters written by eyewitnesses who stayed in Vierville in 1940-41
Letter from Mrs. Hausermann, aged 68, on June 24, 1940, to her son residing in America.
".......Since then, our beautiful and dear country has been invaded by troops in green of gray all motorized, we saw them appear here from Wednesday (June 19, 1940). I will not tell you everything that happened, know that we are at peace for the moment here, but the horrible capitulation that filled us with stupor and grief took place; signed by one of our greatest and pure military glories! Is it possible! We can't believe it! France shot down in a few days, an armistice signed in Compiègne and our lack of word given to our allies! .. This is something that not all French hearts console themselves with. We are without news, the post office no longer works, neither do the trains, the TSF itself, apart from the English, no longer informs us since the Greens of Grey took Rennes where the main French general post was located..... We are still waiting for the conditions that will undoubtedly be draconian to sign peace.... "
Letter from Madame Hausermann to her son, on August 19, 40
" ......it was then the invasion and at what pace! Of all green-greyed troops, well armed, and all motorized. Even our small village is invaded; well, it took me not to leave the old house that I have so far preserved from unwanted guests. All the villas on the beach are inhabited by an E.M. officers and men. So far it's courteous. Dubois (the mayor) who causes a little German is up to his task and harshly defends his fellow citizens. ... "
Memories of Michel Hardelay, written shortly after the Liberation.
He talks about his house, the villa "Les Hortensias", by the sea, requisitioned by the Germans
Villa Hardelay in June 1943
" ......So we had inherited a captain and a lieutenant, various secretaries and an interpreter, French teacher in Berlin. As our villa was intended for a summer vacation, these gentlemen (this is often how the busy French called the Germans) had to install stoves in each of the rooms and even an electric water heating bathtub by accumulation.
The Germans allowed us to maintain the garden, the flowers and grow the vegetable gardens. We could pick the fruits after an experiment on unripe figs disgusted them with French fruits.
I don't know what were the functions of this German aviation unit, bombing of England, coastal surveillance or Atlantic exploration?
Anyway they didn't seem to have any big worries during the year 1941 and took advantage of the beach and the good weather of the summer:
concerts by regimental music, either on tennis, or in front of the windows of "Ker Maria", and sea or sunbathing. I saw them lying on transatlantics, being served drinks on the beach by white-gloved waiters while listening to music and information, having not hesitated to unwind a cable to bring the electric current from the house to the first sandbank.
Opposite the photo of a German military music playing in the garden of the Parmentier family's villa, probably in 1940 or 41
Letter from Jean Cordelle to his brother-in-law in America, October 13, 1941
"........ We have spent each other in the last 3 months in Vierville without difficulties, but it may not be the same in the future, the Germans have just created a coastal area in which only people with their main residence will be able to live and circulate; it is brand new and we do not yet know if we can be classified in this category (it will be possible because the new mayor, Mr. Fernand Leterrier, provided the Cordelle family, who actually lived in Paris, with local identity cards).Apart from that, everything is fine so far in Vierville; we house about ten horses in the stables. (he doesn't say everything, probably out of caution: the horses to be housed are of course German, not a word of the German officers housed at that time, 1 or 2, captain or lieutenant, with the ordinances in the common and some soldiers for the horses). From the vegetable garden we made as many vegetables as possible, but the potatoes suffered from a wet month of August; fortunately it is not the same everywhere in France and the harvest is quite beautiful...."
Here is what Michel Hardelay wrote about that time:
"........ As we were in a coastal zone "so-called forbidden" for out-of-zone inhabitants, each house had to have inside on its front door, a paper bearing the number and names of the occupants, certified by the German authority and each had to have a "ausweis" proving that he lived in a prohibited area. The city of Bayeux was outside the zone, it began on the RN 13 and in the direction of Cherbourg at the top of the coast of Vaumicel; there was a sign in this place, which indicated that we were entering the coastal zone and which warned people that they had to be provided with a special authorization, but it was very rare that there was a control by the field gendarmerie.
The infantry had established the Kommandantur at the mansion of Than, where Captain Adolf Grünschloss, who was one-eyed, the secretariat, the transmission services and the popote for the troop lived. The Lieutenant had requisitioned the house of Mr. Le L., a city councillor, who had taken refuge in an annex. His house was to serve as a reserve in equipment and uniforms, as I learned later. For the troupe, there was no lack of premises: all the furnished rooms of Fernand Le Gallois, the Hôtel du Casino and that of the Plage later called the "Place", the "Fontaine" (La pie qui tette, probably) and even the town hall, which was hardly used..... "
In a document of April 3, 1942, Mr. Fernand Leterrier, Mayor, indicated that, on that date, nine villas were occupied by three officers and about 90 non-commissioned officers and troops, and 16 others remained available for the housing of 200 soldiers.
Practical information
"http://vierville.free.fr"
Town hall: Opening hours: Monday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Tel.: 02.31.22.42.66 Fax: 02.31.21.38.57
Email: "mairie.viervillesurmer@wanadoo.fr"
Library Monday from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., at City Hall.
La Poste: In Vierville: Monday and Friday from 9am to 12pm; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm;
Mail lifts from Monday to Saturday at 9:00 a.m.
Cult:usual mass in Trévières on Sunday morning at 10:30 am. Christmas Mass in Vierville on December 25 at 10:30 am
Firefighters: Tel. 18 Gendarmerie: Tel. 17 or 0231225103 SAMU: Tel. 15
Diste disposal:
The Port en Bessin waste disposal facility is open on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., closed on Thursday and Sunday. Other waste disposal facilities are available in the West of Bessin.
Household Waste:pickup early on Monday morning.
D.Day Omaha Museum open from 1er April to November 11, and on request of groups, off-season
Contact: Mr. Brissard - Tel.: 02.31.21.71.80 - Fax: 02.31.21.71.80
OMAHA-BEACH BEDFORD Association (VA)
Subject: duty of Memory and reception of Americans visiting our sites.
President: Bertrand LE JEMTEL, tel.: 02 31 10 03 59 www.omahabeach-bedford.com
Association Charles de Bellaigue: humanitarian action in Benin - Tel: 0231517413
E-mail: "asso.charlesdebellaigue@voilà.fr" Website: "www.charles-de-bellaigue.org"
Association Beach Friends
President: Dominique GUERNIER tel. 02 31 22 60 41
St. New Year's Eve on December 31, 2006
All year round: Tennis Club Viervillais, 1 outdoor court, rue Pavée
Registration: go in front of the court, first door to the left of the grocery store.
Association Vierville Educational Leisure
Contact: Georgette RACINE, tel. 02.31.22.40.83. September to June, manual activities on Tuesdays from 2:15 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Old Combatants
Contact: Henri Guédon, tel. 02.31.22.49.83
Vierville-St-Laurent Hunting Society: Contact: René LENOURICHEL tel.: 02.31.22.40.27