VIERVILLE & St-LAURENT
En leaving the National Road from Paris to Cherbourg at the place where the Memorial to the Victory of Formigny is raised and heading towards the sea, we pass in front of the Church of this country, located on the right; after about a hundred meters the road forms a bifurcation, one side, the one on the left, will lead to the sea after crossing Vierville, and the other side, Saint-Laurent, at the ends of the boulevard de Cauvigny which we will talk about later.
Taking the direction of Vierville, we see at the entrance of this village, on the side of the road the remarkable entrances of a large gentleman, it is the "Lormel manor", owned by Mr. Leterrier since 1922.
Built at the end of the 16th century, when it was wise not to open its door to everyone; the entrances are surmounted by a tribune openworked by the ends to allow a look at the road. Currently the large door is still open; the curious can take a few steps in the vast courtyard perfectly maintained and surrounded by agricultural buildings leading to a comfortable mansion; this occupies the northern side and still has some windows from the time of Henry IV, the king of "the pot hen".
Among the trees that once surrounded him, there was undoubtedly a magnificent Ormel whose name this place received. As early as 1618 one of the Canivet was called the Sieur de Lormel.
Starting from Lormel, two paths lead to the most curious mansion in the region, the Château du Vaumicel:
His name was written: Vaumisset, Vaumicel and Vomicel. First closed and surrounded by ditches it is currently open to all coming by its owner, Mrs. Viscountess de Bcllaigue de Bughas We still see some of the corner towers and all those that flank the house. Very curious are the corbelments more or less hidden by the ivy that invades those of the sunset. This construction can date back to the 15th century.
Along the eastern wall, by the green path, we arrive at the Manoir de Than:
This mansion has two entrances, one at sunset and the other at the east, through a beautiful park that extends to the church. In this mansion was hospitalized during the Revolution the Abbé Edgeworth, confessor of Louis XVI. A very thick wall allowed to practice a hiding place. After having belonged to the Marguerit de Rochefort family and to the last person of this name, who became the Countess of Goussencourt. The Mansion of Than is rented to Mrs. de Villodon by its owners Mrs. and Mr. Commander of Bray.
Between this mansion and that of Lormel, we see the beautiful house of the Ygouf family, we call it the Castle
Of the Isles in memory of the Manoir des isles which was in the same place. In the sharp turn of the path appears the very pretty Church, surrounded by its cemetery, as are almost all those of our small countries. :
Built for a much more considerable population than the current one, this church had aisles whose arcades are walled to the right and left of the nave. This must date back to the 12th century, judging by the narrow windows that we saw below the
roof. The primitive choir was from the same period as revealed by the Romanesque opening discovered in the northern wall, near the tower. A repair was made in the style of the 12th century, which is that of the windows of the choir and the vault of the base of the tower supported by elegant columns. During the repair of these, we found next to their foundations a group carved in stone re
presenting the Martyrdom of Saint-André, which is presided over by a crowned character. You can see this group at the bottom of the nave above the front door.
Noticed in the cemetery, a large and beautiful araucaria that the Church shelters from the winds of the north.
To the left of the road from the Church to the sea, the facade overlooking the Port to Grandcamp road, about thirty meters from the Satos car station, is the Château de Vierville:
Rebuilt in the 16th century by the de Marguerie, it now belongs to Mr. Hauzerman. A very elegant turret, completely separated from the modern castle, is undoubtedly a vestige of the old one that was at the Vierville.
Further on this road, large doors draw attention to an old construction from the 16th century, it is the Manor of Crespigny, we see, in a wheat granary, a very large fireplace with geometric decorations.
In the opposite direction, towards Saint-Laurent, in a small path, there is a well whose ancient architectural genre attracts the attention of walkers.
Although the statistics give the figure of 338 inhabitants for Vierville, during the summer this number is considerably exceeded; many people devote part of their home to rental to bathers, in addition there are very good hotels in the village itself, the Hôtel des Touristes de Mr. Pignolet and the Hotel de la Plage de Mre Merlin, customers are received there with urbanity, they are treated with research and comfort, the cuisine is neat, varied, exquisite; there is also a family pension, Miss Lemoigne, we taste the healthy bourgeois cuisine, in short the village is better stocked and we find everything we may need, at affordable prices because until now the gunshots are unknown on our Beaches.
After passing the village of Vierville, crossed, as well as that of Saint-Laurent, by the road from Port to Grandcamp, we will descend towards the sea or better towards what we will call Vierville-Plage, because if about thirty years ago this shore was about deserted, the two twin beaches, formed with Saint-Laurent, are connected by a superb boulevard of more than 2 kilometers in length, created around 1900 by Mr. de Cauvigny, at that time Mayor of Vierville. If for many years the works carried out to preserve this boulevard from the fury of the waves, by high tides were insufficient, we have begun, with the support of the public authorities, very large protection works, which will continue from year to year, and will protect it from the damage caused by sea blows.
With the creation of this boulevard, pretty and coquettish constructions have emerged and it cannot be denied that there are few beaches in France with a natural site as grandiose and a panorama as wonderful as this place in Bessin
This is how Vierville-Plage was born a few years ago the magnificent hotel and luxurious Casino de M Piprel, which, sheltered from great gusts, with its pretty rooms and its flowery terrace, overlooking the sea, dominates it from about thirty meters high. It is the meeting place of the Distinguished and Worldly Society, as well as the meeting place for all Families, because if we find a benevolent welcome, there is nothing like a dinner at Piprel and it is unforgettable when you are lucky enough to be able to enjoy American lobster.
A little further down the facade overlooking the boulevard and the back at sea level, which it overlooks its five floors; like a challenge thrown at the great ravages, is Mr. Legallois' establishment. It is fully entered through the facade where the shops are located containing all the items necessary for bathers and tourists, as well as food. From these shops you enter a huge fully glazed hall serving as a coffee room, billiards, and where, during the season, parties, evenings or film performances take place.
On the side are, slightly raised, cabins belonging either to individuals or to the aforementioned establishment, where for a modest price, you can settle comfortably and temporarily shelter from bad weather
Going down to the sea we are struck by the imposing aspect of the building that dominates it and we can only bow to the courage of the daring man who made him, so to speak, get out of the waves, because it is an indisputable fact, it is that the sea gnaws our coasts and every year accuses a very slight progression and if - as in the legends of old Armorique. we do not see, by the moonlight, the bell towers of the churches emerging at the bottom of the waves - it is no less true that we have found, in Vierville, the remains of a port that once existed there and that is now completely disappeared.
Its remains are these large stones that can be seen at low tide near Boulevard de Cauvigny. As Dr. Létienne wrote, while walking through this field of stones called La Balise, we soon distinguish alignments that seem very intentional and flush with the sand we find well-crafted substructures, whose layout can be easily followed. He comes to the idea that this dispersion of stones comes from the destruction of a large masonry work." The stony space starts from a bank of pebbles separating it from the roadway and ends with two tips 130 meters away from the shore. These points represent the two piers limiting the long-sanded channel. The substruction describes a curve 18 meters long on one side and 21 meters on the other. We also see, regularly spaced from each other, woods exceeding the sand level by 20 to 25 centimeters and having served as a protective facing for the docking of boats.
To the east, we notice at ground level, the remains of an 85-centimeter thick wall heading perpendicular to the shore over a length of 6 meters, then making a right angle before continuing over a length of 10 meters. There are still some blackened or burnished woods such as woods that are charred.
'the out this marks the location of a small port that was created or restored at the end of the 15th century by Guillaume du Mesnil, according to what his great-grandson, Jean, declared in 1604. Mention is made of the salary allocated in 1599 to the port supervisors of Grandcamp and Vierville, which proves that at that time there was a port in Vierville.
On the other hand, the geography of Bessin published in 1675 by the canon Petite says: Vierville, former port.
The Monumental Normandy attributes the ruin of the Port of Vierville to a retreat from the sea. which, after hitting the foot of the cliff "would have
left behind it quite important lakes converted today into pastures: The opposite seems rather to have happened, the sea having continued, since historical times, to slowly erode the coast, as can be seen by the deposit of woody peat that borders the coast ".
It is easy to find trunks of trees and roots that are still recognizable. They seem to be the remains of a submerged forest that
the legend calls La Forêt de Quintefeuille.. To that natural cause are added the economic conditions leading to the development of
ports of Grandcamp and Port-en-Bessin. the costs that would have required the maintenance of the port of Vierville and the impossibility of sheltering boats or the foot of the cliffs to explain the disappearance that occurred in the 15th century.
If going down to the boulevard, we only see cottages and houses and small although coquettish, such as Marinette, Mon Repos, Les Capucines, Petit Logis, Manick, Simple Abri, La Vague, etc., etc., the more we advance on this boulevard, the more important the constructions become, such as La Reposerie, Les Embruns, La Bise, Les Millepertuis, built in the middle of a cliff or isolated like Les Algues or grouped at the foot like Le Mont-Olive, sometimes separated by green spaces waiting for new constructions; others reappear more and more and more beautiful, with their artistically designed gardens with magnificent carefully ravined and raked alleys: some of these villas disappear under clusters of greenery, others spread out into the open air
Their superb architecture, such as the group of eight villas that are located towards the middle of this road and form a whole of the most harmonious effect with their style and kind of small Norman castles, among the most beautiful: La Sauvagère, whose construction is due to Dr. Létienne, then, next to it, the magnificent villa of Mr. Richard Parisian printer, that of Mr. Scheffer and to finish the series the super-dwelling of Mr. Dr. Parmentier, former doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. This group of villas built mid-coast is of the most wonderful effect and attracts attention.
And this leads us, after a green space, to Saint Laurent or more boldly planted on the edge of the boulevard, seeming to have no connection to fear spray are "Les Bruyères, La Videlouière, Villas Gabrielle et des Bergeronnettes, Les Tamaris", etc., forming a whole, and we manage to join the road from Saint-Laurent to the sea that we had left on the right when leaving Formigny.
Going up this road about fifty meters, we find ourselves in the agglomeration of Saint-Laurent-Plage-d'Or, a superb small town that could be compared to a pearl in a box, the cliffs that surround it making it a basket of greenery or rest very pretty villas with avenues planted with tastefully trimmed trees and truly wonderful gardens, such as Jeanne-d'Arc to M. Carteret and Les Moulins to Mr. Bourdoux. In these two properties there are picturesque mills fed by streams of water from neighboring cliffs, they would have been built before English rule, but preserved, embellished and restored by the current owners.
This pretty little place is better equipped; there is the Lebassacq hotel with its pretty lounges and where the cuisine is exquisite, the Hôtel des Bains, of Mr. Rollet, where you always receive a most hospitable welcome, and where you are at ease. Moreover, we find everything necessary for food, articles for sea baths, souvenirs, etc., we even find there, holding one of these stores, our friend Léon Louvet, the former cyclist, who with his brother Jean-Baptiste, who lives in the large white house, before the entrance to the village of Saint-Laurent, now withdrawn from business, did some thirty years ago, at the time of the Jacquelin and others, run the all-Paris.
Going up a little towards Saint-Laurent bourg, is on our left the villa Saint-Hubert de M. Perron and on our right Les Tilleuls
A few meters higher is the post office, installed in a charming building of recent construction. After having passed a few houses of minor importance we see on our left the entrance of a small green path which climbs into the cliff and overlooks the side of the Villa Saint-Hubert, Arriving at this height we enjoy the most delicious panorama that we can dream of: Saint-Laurent extends below with its villas, parks, gardens, mills, having as a background the varied shades of the azure of the waves, sometimes foamy, sometimes calm and transparent; continuing this path we pass on the hill in front of the Tamaris and after having turned it down to the sea, in the agglomeration of cabins that border it, near the villa Les Sables d'Or. About 500 meters of the most pleasant walk.
This excursion takes us back to our starting point; along the few hundred meters of the cabins belonging to individuals we find ourselves at the end of the road coming from Formigny stopped at the sea by a row of chains. Next to this dam is a strong stone, unfortunately deteriorated in recent years by cars that have pulled sand from the sea, this stone is "the fish stone", so named because in the past the fishermen of the country came to sell the product of their fishing.
A thousand years ago, a few fishing boats were parked in front of the mills of Saint-Laurent. Gilles le Grain was the "master sailot". He had as subordinates Jean Havard, Pierre and Robert Dupont, Gilles Gouye and others whose descendants gradually gave up offshore fishing to limit themselves to that of herring and shrimp. Others became farmers and raised sheep on the meager land that is now built of pretty villas
Let's leave the Beach for a moment to go to Saint-Laurent bourg as we call what is near a church, although of little importance, the houses being scattered there, there are still two coffee grocers and a butcher. The Church is very interesting to visit.
The modest bell tower can date back to the end of the Middle Ages. The nave of the Church, once flanked by a side to the north, has been rebuilt in the style of the choir which is from the 13th century. In the chapel that once followed the aisle, we see the ancient statues of Saint-Etienne and Saint-Laurent, much more remarkable than the modern statues of Saint Laurent and Saint Joan of Arc.
Near the Church is the entrance to the buildings of the former stately mansion overlooking the road from Port to Grandcamp, belonging to Mr. Carteret, already owner of the mills we mentioned above.
Going up from the sea we first see the old dovecote then on the other side of the house, on the road, the unfortunately walled entrances. These two flamboyant-style arcades (15th century) have recently been classified among the historical monuments. Elegant columns, graceful twists, beautiful voussures... The smallest is surmounted by an arch whose tip extends and supports a plume. Between the large and the small entrance rises a column starting in the shape of a buttress and ending in a pedestal for a statue... absent. Wrongly this niche made us believe that there would have been no priory in this place, because there was always the seigneurial mansion. In the neighboring grassy we still see some stone foundations remaining from the dungeon of Auvray the Giant, a dungeon to prevent pirates from landing on the coast, from worrying the inhabitants.
About a hundred meters further, in the direction of Vierville, is the Saint-Laurent station formerly served by the tram whose rails are noticeable at the edge of the Formigny road, their suppression would allow the widening of this track for the greater development of the Beaches.