Heading to some of the very best beaches: from Paris to Deauville

So this is how a success story goes: Take stretches of pristine sandy beach stretching to the horizon, drain the adjacent marshland, and build avenues, promenades, 40 villas, plus a luxury hotel, a casino, a racecourse and a hydrotherapy centre – and there you have it: a glamorous seaside resort. It helps immensely if you’re related to the current monarch and know how to move in the upper echelons of society in the nearest metropolis.

This is what happened in the mid-19th century. Duke Charles de Morny built his ‘kingdom of elegance’, known as Deauville, on the Normandy coast. A place of longing with sweeping views and the shortest possible route from Paris to the sea, it developed, by the early 20th century at the latest, into the ultimate summer retreat for Paris’s high society. Coco Chanel opened her very first shop here; later, Winston Churchill, Yves Saint Laurent and Artur Rubinstein followed. And in 1975, the ‘Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville’ was launched, attracting Hollywood stars ranging from Rita Hayworth to Jack Nicholson and George Clooney.

Incidentally, the town is also known as the ‘21st arrondissement of Paris’, a reputation that was further cemented by the construction of the A13 motorway from Paris to Caen. France’s first motorway was even awarded a star by the Michelin Guide in the 1960s, shortly after its completion. The democratisation of mobility ultimately ensured that, from that time onwards, broad sections of the ‘Égalité’ society too could find the promise of freedom – including a sense of new beginnings and a summer retreat – in Deauville or the neighbouring Trouville-sur-Mer. Those who prefer to travel via the Route Nationale would be well advised to plan stop-offs at Monet’s garden, Richard the Lionheart’s castle or the Moulin d’Andé cultural centre.