Parc du Thuit

Deauville is a seaside resort on the Normandy coast, and most of its reputation rests on its beach, its racecourse and its film festival, but the town also has quieter corners, and its green spaces are part of the design that its founders intended. Few details of the Parc du Thuit are documented, so what follows describes the setting and the kind of visit it offers: a public park in a resort that was laid out in the nineteenth century with squares, avenues and gardens around the villas and hotels.

Deauville was created in the 1860s on marshland at the mouth of the river Touques, by the Duke of Morny, half-brother of Napoleon III, and the doctor Joseph Olliffe, with plans drawn up by the architect Desle-François Breney. The resort was planned as a whole, with a grid of streets and a seafront lined with hotels, and it grew in a style that mixed the half-timbering, brick and stone of the Anglo-Norman manor houses with the grand façades of Paris. Green spaces were part of this plan, as the villas were built with gardens and the streets were planted with trees. Visitors arrived in summer from Paris, and the town quickly became a centre of fashion.

The park offers a break from the busier parts of the town, such as the boardwalk with its parasols and the shopping streets with their luxury boutiques. A walk under the trees, with benches and lawns, is a calm contrast to the beach, and the park is used by residents for strolls, by families for a break and by joggers in the early morning. It is a simple pleasure, and a good way to see how the town works when the crowds of the season have gone. In spring and summer the planting is at its best, and in autumn the colour of the leaves adds to the charm of the town.

There is no charge to enter an open public park, and the opening hours depend on the season, so check locally if you plan to use it at an early or late hour. The town is compact, and most of its sights can be reached on foot in a few minutes.

In Deauville itself, the Casino Barrière, the Église Notre-Dame, the racecourse, the Hippodrome de Deauville, where flat racing takes place in August and the great sales of yearlings are held, and the Plage de Deauville, with its famous boardwalk, Les Planches, are all close. Across the river Touques lies Trouville-sur-Mer, an older and more modest resort with a fish market on the quay and a lively harbour. The two towns are linked by a bridge and a short walk, and together they offer a varied day. Deauville also hosts the Deauville American Film Festival each September, which brings stars and film fans to the town, and a polo season in summer.

The park suits visitors who want a quiet interval between sights, and those who enjoy the gentler side of a resort.