Ancien Hôtel des Roches Noires

English translation

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History

The former Hôtel des Roches Noires, built in 1866 with its annexe called Les Roches Normandes, with its grand, superb mass, flanked by its two parallel wings, with its carcass of bricks framed in stone, its stucco columns, its boldly pronounced bas-reliefs, its perron, its balconies and its thousand windows opening onto the sea (Létang guide 1866) was considered at the time the most picturesque and original of the great palaces, at the same time as one of the most modern and comfortable. It was the second great luxury hotel built on this part of the Norman coast. It originally comprised 75 bedrooms, and 300 bedrooms in 1913, lit by electricity since 1904. All of high society succeeded each other there, and notably the Russians and Americans. Marcel Proust frequented it between 1880 and 1915. Marguerite Duras made it the setting for three of her films. Partly transformed in 1924 by architect Mallet-Stevens who played the role of French window to foreigners, it has retained from this period its hall with strict and sober lines, its veranda and its garage. It was divided into apartments in 1950.