Cabourg, the romantic; Houlgate, the seaside resort; Villers-sur-Mer, the elegant; Deauville, the fashionable; Trouville, the charming; Honfleur, with its harbor and cobbled streets. Under the name Côte Fleurie (Flowered Coast), a string of famous towns, synonymous with chic and romance. Rows of Belle Époque villas vying for attention with their eccentricities, an invigorating seaside, the ghosts of illustrious artists, and landscapes immortalized on canvas and film populate this coastline bathed in magical light and mild weather.
The Côte Fleurie, or seaside chic
In the 19th century, wealthy elites popularized sea bathing and created seaside resorts. The towns of the Côte Fleurie emerged. Prized by artists who contributed to their renown, they flourished.
From the 1930s onwards, the most elitist devotees abandoned the Côte Fleurie in favour of the Riviera, but the progress of transport, paid holidays and the expansion of tourism brought a new population to the beaches which perpetuated and increased the fortune of the seaside resorts.
Did you know? In the 1930s, on the beaches of Deauville, Coco Chanel participated in the emergence of the tanned complexion fashion, overturning the canon of feminine beauty which was the whiteness of the skin of the elites.
The Côte Fleurie, a source of inspiration
The atmosphere, the life, the landscapes and the light of the Côte Fleurie have always attracted artists who draw inspiration from it and find a setting conducive to creation.
Many writers (Gustave Flaubert, Marcel Proust, Marguerite Duras…) stayed there regularly.
In the 19th century, painters left their studios and set up their easels outdoors to capture the light of the Côte Fleurie on canvas and convey emotion (Mozin, Huet, Corot, Boudin, Courbet,
Monet, Caillebotte, Pissarro, Seurat…). In the 20th century, the Fauves took up the themes of their predecessors with strong colours (Dufy, Van Dongen…).
Since the 1920s, beaches, villages and villas have offered a prime natural setting for filmmakers, who come to set up their cameras a few kilometers from Paris (A Monkey in Winter in Villerville, The Intouchables in Cabourg, A Man and a Woman in Deauville, The 400 Blows in Villers, I'm Staying in Blonville-sur-Mer, Bob the Gambler at the Deauville Casino…).
“Having learned that there was a hotel in Cabourg, the most comfortable on the entire coast, I went there.” (Letter from Marcel Proust to Mme de Caraman-Chimay, summer 1907). Every summer for seven years, the writer returned to Cabourg and described the Grand Hôtel and the promenade. “[…] this dining room in Balbec appeared bare, filled with green sunlight like the water of a swimming pool, and a few meters from which the high tide and the bright daylight raised, as if before the celestial city, an indestructible and mobile rampart of emerald and gold.” (In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower).
Things to do on the Côte Fleurie
MUSEUMS
- Deauville | Les Franciscaines Trouville | Villa Montebello
- Honfleur | Eugène Boudin Museum, Satie House, Old Honfleur Museum
FESTIVALS
- May | Full Wind : Kite Festival on the Beach | Houlgate
- June | Romantic Film Festival | Cabourg |
Cabourg My Love | Cabourg - July | RéciDives Festival : Diversity of puppetry aesthetics | Dives-sur-Mer
| Musical walks in the Pays d'Auge - September | American Film Festival | Deauville
Off-Courts International Short Film Festival | Trouville - November | Russian Film Festival | Honfleur
BOTANICAL SHOWS
- April | Garden in bloom | Cabourg
| Passionately gardening | Honfleur
WITH CHILDREN
- Water activities: sea bathing and beach , lengths in the outdoor pool shore fishing in Cabourg, Houlgate or Merville-Franceville.
- Land activities: trotting on the sand, playing mini-golf in Cabourg, playing paleontologists by searching for fossils on the cliffs of Vaches noires (Houlgate, Villers), cycling along the coastline.
- Thrills: Deauville Adventure Park offers paintball, tree climbing, adventure courses, zip lines and off-road electric scooter rides.
- Transport yourself to a tropical environment, in the butterfly greenhouse of Naturospace in Honfleur.
- Travel back in time to meet the dinosaurs at Paléospace in Villers-sur-Mer.
- Comfortably seated, escape into the pages of books at the Les Franciscaines media library in Deauville.
- Take refuge at the cinema : Le Drakkar in Dives-sur-Mer offers screenings with snacks or workshops throughout the year. Festivals: Drakkar'Toon (autumn holidays), Little Films Festival (summer).
FOR ATHLETES
- Olympic swimming pool in Deauville, land sailing in Cabourg and Trouville, kitesurfing in Houlgate, sea kayaking in Villers-sur-Mer, fat biking on Trouville beach… there are many water sports to enjoy on the Côte Fleurie! You can also canoe or kayak down the Touques and Dives rivers or sail on a traditional rigging with the Petit Foc association in Trouville.
- To try your luck with trout, head to the Touques River (sea trout). If you prefer shellfish, go clamming on the sandy beaches of Cabourg, Houlgate, or Merville-Franceville in search of cockles.
- With a sea view or a countryside setting? Choose your golf course in Cabourg, Houlgate, Deauville and Saint-Julien-sur-Calonne.
- For a game of outdoor tennis, book your court in Cabourg, Deauville, Trouville…
- Whether you're looking for leisurely family walks or more challenging loops, the coastline is teeming with hiking trails: there's something for everyone!
- In horse country, you'll be spoiled for choice! And don't miss the..
- horse races in Cabourg and Deauville.
- Whether you're with family or on your own, there are routes of varying levels and durations along the coastline. A few ideas: the cycle route from the Côte Fleurie (Cabourg) to the Dives marshes (Mézidon), or the coastal cycle route from Cabourg to Merville-Franceville.
These are cliffs, some one hundred meters high, located between Houlgate and Villers. These large, seaweed-covered boulders reminded sailors of a herd of cows. The protected site can be explored on foot at low tide. It contains fossils dating back hundreds of millions of years, evidence of a distant tropical past.