Moulins beach in Saint-Laurent in postcards

Saint-Laurent

The beach and its villas

Before the war

The beach, Excerpt from a pre-war tourist document

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 leaving Formigny.

By 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 from very pretty villas with avenues planted with tastefully trimmed trees and truly wonderful gardens, such as Jeanne-d'Arc to Mr. Carteret and Les Moulins to Mr. Bourdoux. In these two properties there are picturesque mills fed by streams of water coming 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 Lebasscq hotel with its pretty lounges and where the cuisine is exquisite, the Hôtel des Bains, by Mr. Rollet, where we always receive a most hospitable welcome, and where we are at ease. Moreover, we find everything that is necessary for food, articles for sea baths, souvenirs, etc., we even find there, holding one of these shops, our friend Léon Louvet, the former cyclist, who with his brother Jean-Baptiste, who lives in the big white house, before the entrance to the village of Saint-Laurent, now withdrawn from business, made some thirty years ago, at the time of the Jacquelin and others, run the whole of Paris.

By 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 recently built building. 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 cabins belonging to individuals we find ourselves at the end of the road coming from Formigny stopped at sea by a row of chains. Next to this dam is a strong stone, unfortunately deteriorated in recent years by cars that have drawn 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 hundred 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.

Close to the Church, is the entrance to the buildings of the old manor house overlooking the road from Port to Grandcamp, belonging to Mr. Carteret, already owner of the mills we mentioned above.

As we go up from the sea, we first see the old dovecote and 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 removal would allow the widening of this track for the greater development of the Beaches."

Panoramic 2000

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