The boulevard de Cauvigny and the beach
The 1st register of Vierville, carried out in 1823, had divided the municipality into 4 sectors:
A to the Southeast, Detailed view of the quarter SE (section A)
B to the Southwest, Detailed view of the quarter SO (section B)
C in the Northwest, Detailed view of the quarter NO (section C)
And D in the Northeast. Detailed view of quarter NE (section D)
The Port-en-Bessin / Grandcamp roads and the descent to the sea - Formigny road delimited these four sections of very uneven surfaces.
The Commune had communal land in each of the 4 sections, in the south, the "vignets" and in the north, the cliffs including the lower parts at their foot, until the strike.
In 1846, the municipality decided to distribute these communes, on the one hand the Vignets, on the other hand the cliffs, among the 85 families - it was called lights at the time - of the commune, by lot.
The beach and cliffs on the cadastre 1823
To the west of the descent to the sea there was a mill in ruins and a bief (water supply channel) that received No. D1 to D6, on section C. The cliffs had an area of just over one hectare and were divided into three (?) Lots.
East of the descent, the largest piece, of 29.5 hectares was divided into 82 equal lots of 36 ares 02. All lots bore the cadastral mention D7p, and were classified as "moors".
Their limits, all perpendicular to the shore, stopped to the north at the strike, a limit represented on the first dividing plan, by a straight line, and to the south, at the Customs Road on a cliff crest.
Of course the width of the lots was variable since the surface of each lot was the same. Near the descent to the sea, lot No. 6 had a width of nearly 45 m., towards Mr. Hardelay, it was half: 22.25 m., further east it was only 13 or 14 m.
On the East side, there was a 5-meter path, adjacent to the municipality of Saint-Laurent, substantially perpendicular to the shore, and which turned at a right angle to the East at about 80 meters, and still served as limits to the municipalities on 50 or 60 m. Lots numbered 84 and 85 therefore had no direct access to the sea and lot 83 was complicated.
This division allowed a few decades later the sale of certain lots and the construction of the first villas on the beach. The city dwellers have thus started the development of tourism in the municipality.
THE SOURCE OF THE ROADS
Halfway to Saint-Laurent, there was a source in the cliff, the source of the "Routoirs". The path that led to this source had been preserved between two lots.
This source used to make the linen "red". At that time, the inhabitants lived a lot in a closed circuit and everything had to be produced on site except metals. As weaving fibers, flax was grown - the path that bypasses the property of Mrs. Jacquet (today Mr. Dordain) is called "Chemin de la LINIERE".
Two paths led to this source, one from the route du Hamel au Prêtre, in front of the current property of Jean Olard and, through the "4 furrows", joined the chemin de la Douan (cliff ridge path), and the other from the bottom, passing through the beach or on the pebble ridge.
CUSTOMS OFFICERS IN VIERVILLE
Before 1920, customs officers lived in a small barracks in Saint-Laurent, above the Ruquet (it is now a second home). Their mission was to monitor the coast and look for possible smugglers.
A small customs shelter that remained at the top of the Vierville cliff has not been rebuilt, there are no more resident customs officers in front of the beach now called Omaha Beach. (A small customs barracks existed in Saint-Laurent,
details (June 30, 43), above a group of houses, we see what may have been a customs shelter, near the cliff ridge, between Vierville and St-Laurent, at 2/3.
Under the cliff ridge, an old small customs shelter?.
The site at the foot of the cliffs was swampy and cider press owners came there in August and September to cut reeds four feet to place between the beds of cut apples placed on the presses.
The all the first villas were built towards the end of the 2nd Empire (Napoleon III had been interested in Bessin and had considered "valégiating" in Grandcamp), but the seaside road did not see the light of day until 1900, subsidized by the department, (it was the RD 30), under the impetus of Mayor Etienne de Cauvigny (owner of the domain of Saint-Sever). This road was named "Boulevard de Cauvigny"
The land for the road had been given by the owners, the wooden protections against the sea were built under the direction of the voyeur agent but paid for by the owners of the lots. These were doing their business of the discharge into the sea of the waters of their springs. As there was a row of pebbles of several meters along the shore, nozzles under the road were enough.
THE ROAD PROTECTION DAM
(See also page 45, coastal geology )In 1936, the seaside road was protected on its first 600m. by the current masonry dike, founded on piles, up to the front of the villa Les Hortensias (Hardelay).
During the war years, it was impossible to take care of the protection of the coastal road against the sea. The occupation of the American Army led the Engineer to exploit the bank of pebbles without measure, in order to stone their roads. The sea has therefore resumed nearly five meters at the Vierville-St-Laurent limit, which explains the slight curve that exists in front of the Chevalier property, because we could not continue the alignment of the 1938 dike in front of the Hardelay villa. When we remade a more precise plan, we realized that the shore was no longer straight and that the sea had gained ground on lots 25 to 35.
During extension of the dike (around 1950), to Saint-Laurent, the road had been classified as "National Road", the owners had to insist that the old flows be preserved or restored.
For the flow of the source of the "Routoirs", the Ponts et Chaussées have installed large nozzles under the road.
Since the road has regained its status as a departmental road, the CD517.
In the 1990s, additional protection from large rocks was put in place throughout this dike.
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(details) Notice the construction site of the dike in 1936, with a bell to darken foundation piles
The construction site of the dike in 1950
THE CONSTRUCTION OF VILLAS
It is difficult to know at what rate the villas were built. There are many postcards (hundreds) from various eras, which show the constructions that follow one another and change, but the dates are missing to reconstruct the schedule. In particular, it is almost impossible to know which villas existed in 1900, 1914, 1930.
The photos opposite are old, around 1900. The boulevard de Cauvigny is built.
The Reposerie is under construction, Mont Olive is being built, Les Hortensias are present, but the space towards St-Laurent is empty up to Les Moulins.
As for the space under the descent, it is relatively empty: the Cusinberche villa is not there, neither the Casino restaurant, nor the café and the Le Gallois cabins.
The establishments Piprel (restaurant then hotel du Casino) and Le Gallois (currently bar and brasserie de la Plage d'Or) can be followed more or less in their movements, modifications and successive expansions with postcards, but the dates are missing.
The detail of the evolution of seaside constructions is discussed in the following chapters:
5730-The beach and the arrival at the beach
5731-661-Mer and Percée Streets
5733-6643-Bld Cauvigny, Center West
5734-6644-Bld Cauvigny, Center East
The Reposerie is under construction
Around 1900
The beach in 1823-1878(?)-1939
The beach (west part) and the village on June 30, 1943, as the Germans began the demolition of the villas and began the anti-tank wall
(Editing of several military photos by Thierry Nicolle)
The beach in 2001 (section related to Vierville)
An approximate score shows that in 1939, facing the sea, there were about 35 more or less large villas and houses (not counting many beach cabins that have not been rebuilt) between the Le Gallois establishment (now a monument of the National Guard of the USA) and the Vierville-St Laurent limit. By comparison today, there are almost twice as many on the same area, re-sized after the war, i.e. 63 constructions and a few building permits not yet completed.
On the area re-sized from the foot of the descent to the sea to the old quarry, there are now about 20 houses and villas, there were 22 before the war, including the Gambier house embedded further into the cliff. The pre-war beach cabins were not rebuilt there.
Here is what a 1932 advertising document said about these seaside constructions/
"If going down to the boulevard, we only see cottages and houses of light dimensions 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 at mid-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 pretty, with their artistically designed gardens with magnificent carefully ravined and raked alleys: some of these villas disappear under clusters of greenery, others spread their superb architecture in the open air, such as the group of eight villas that are towards the middle of this street and form a set of the most harmonious effect with their style and kind of small Norman castles, among the most beautiful: La Saugagère, whose construction is due to Mr. Létienne, then, next door, the magnificent villa of Mr. Richard Parisian printer, that of Mr. Scheffer and to finish the series the super-habitation of Mr. Dr. Parmentier, former doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. This group of villas built halfway up the coast is of the most wonderful effect and attracts attention.
And this leads us, after a green space, to Saint Laurent where more boldly planted on the edge of the boulevard, seeming to have nothing to fear from spray, are "Les Bruyères, La Videlouière, Villas Gabrielle et des Bergeronnettes, Les Tamaris", etc., forming a whole, and we manage to reach the road of Saint-Laurent to the sea that we had left on the right when leaving Formigny."
The Reconstruction of Boulevard de Cauvigny (1950-1970)
On Boulevard de Cauvigny, the reconstruction was completed in the 1950s and 1960s and then completed by many entirely new villas.
Today, there are about 60 to 65 built properties (instead of 30 to 35 before the war) and there is very little unbuilt building land left. However, on each land already built, the theoretical building rights authorized by the COS (Soil Use Coefficients) are often not exhausted.
These are of course theoretical rights, because these rights are now subject to the discretion of the protection commissions of the Grand Site of Omaha Beach. The Grand Site's mission is in principle "to ensure the preservation of its exceptional qualities, whether picturesque, historical, scientific or legendary".
Comments on the Local Urban Planning Plan (2011)
We recognize at the top left the Hardelay and Mathy villas
In the center the 2 Swedish barracks recovered from the temporary reconstructions of the cities in 1945/46
On the right and from top to bottom the villas Parmentier, Cordelle, Denys (originally built by Mr. Prior)
We recognize at the bottom - on the right the villa built by Mr. Prior - on the left a Marchal villa - in the center a Lebrec villa (from before the war)
Above and below, various assessments of the many types of achievements in terms of fences