Normandy, Casino, Printemps: 110 years of loyalty to Deauvillle

The Normandy Hotel has built its history with picks. The picks of the builders, of course, and then the "good picks", those of the meetings of a prestigious mishmash of artists and great characters of the time, in love with a spirit and a style: entertainment. Inaugurated in 1912, the chroniclers of Parisian and New York social life wrote that it was "the most beautiful hotel in the world". There were 300 rooms with bathrooms, 30 salons, and a 170 square meter dining room. All this to discover an interior walkway of 11 kilometers of carpet (!), lined with 200,000 electric bulbs, 25 kilometers of wallpaper stretched on the walls and the famous "toile de Jouy" which dresses the rooms and suites with its shades of vegetable and mineral colors, both solemn and familiar...

After the Great War, the Normandy quickly regained its clientele and the biggest names of the Roaring Twenties: Winston Churchill took a discreet vacation there with his wife Clementine, the Prince of Wales as a bachelor dropped anchor in 1924, Coco Chanel opened a boutique, painters, actors, writers, the "Tout-Paris" of the arts, but also businessmen and industrialists such as André Citroën, stayed there in complete idleness. In 1925, the Société des Hôtels et Casino de Deauville undertook to enlarge the building. The 1930's marked the continuation of the decades, interspersed with a second world war that Le Normandy overcame in its walls and in its spirit. Later, it became the setting for some mythical images of the cinema, including of course the film "A Man and a Woman" by Claude Lelouch (Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and awarded the same year in 1966 by an Oscar in Hollywood). Since 1975, it has been the setting for the Deauville American Film Festival which attracts the giants of the silver screen. Jack Nicholson was amazed by the gallery of 147 whisky references offered by the Normandy Bar! New era, new decoration, in the winter of 2015-2016, the Normandy is renovated. It closes its doors for a few months, for the first time since its opening in 1912. A new Normandy is reborn, metamorphosed, surprising, without altering the soul of this legendary hotel.

With the invention of the Normandy, the founders François André and Eugène Cornuché entrusted a mission to the architect Georges Wybo. The man who designed leisure buildings was notably known for his creation of the Printemps department stores, which were popular with the Parisian public. His mission: to use his art to create the decorations, ornaments and comfort of a casino's gaming rooms. Georges Wybo proposed an architecture full of references to the 17th and 18th centuries in France, with rounded wings, large and high windows... and the small theater, almost a replica of the auditorium that King Louis XIV enjoyed at the Château de Versailles. On the day of the inauguration, July 11, 1912, the show was also in the room, with the presence of personalities from the diplomatic and political world, the arts and industry. A winning bet, Paris was won over. The gazettes are under the spell. The years go by. Talents and their artistic universes succeeded one another on the casino stage: stars of song with Charles Aznavour, of dance and defectors from the Russian Ballet with Rudolf Nureyev, of the cinema with Lelouch's lovers, of the novel with Françoise Sagan who preferred the gaming tables. In 1988, slot machines made their appearance. Lucien Barrière, nephew of François André, then leads the Group and undertakes a complete renovation of the casino with the objective of making the most beautiful and modern casino in Europe. In just four months, the project was completed and offered new spaces: a vast room with 365 slot machines, four restaurants, three bars, a night club, reception rooms and a 700-seat cinema. Twelve years later, in 2000, the decorator Jacques Garcia took part in this constantly renewed innovation by signing the current decoration of the Casino Barrière Deauville.

Opened in 1912, the Printemps Deauville was the very first branch of a department store in the provinces and one of the first fashion boutiques to be established in Deauville. Like the Normandy and the casino, the creation of this "novelty store" was an integral part of the seaside resort's urban development projects. As leisure and travel activities developed and vacationers moved to Deauville for the summer season, Le Printemps saw an opportunity and set out to accompany them. This was a first for a Parisian department store. The store, open exclusively in the summer, took up residence in an authentic Norman house. The saleswomen were recruited from among the best employees of the Parisian flagship and housed in a reserved villa. This new address is characteristic of the company's policy: to go out and meet its customers. To be at the right time, in the right place. In fact, the Normandy branch will be the first link in a long chain of stores in the provinces.