Les Pieds dans le Sable - Trouville

Trouville is not just about lobster 🦞 

It’s a seaside town loaded with history

Trouville has been a fishing village since Medieval times.

Known as Le Porte de Pêche

Then the artists came, just like in Soho and everything changed. One of the earliest was British watercolorist Richard Parkes Bonington (1882-1828).

 Even Camille Corot (1796-1875) painted fishing boats here.

Eugene Boudin (1824-1898) one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors, really put Trouville on the map as THE place to paint. He taught Monet (1840-1926) the joys of ‘pleine air’ painting. Early days they painted together side-by-side.

Malheureusement, you won’t see too many artistes lurking on the beach these days.

I tried yesterday. I need to warm up...I’m rusty.

I walked along les Promenade des planches/boardwalk

Just like visitors have always walked along les planches. The seafront boardwalk was laid in 1867 in Azobé, an exotic wood resistant to heat & cold. It made for an elegant promenade lining the eclectic Victorian villas and chalets.

Not many actual bathers yesterday afternoon, though many sunbathers. The tide was way out. The sand is very fine, unlike the hard pebbles on most French beaches.

The fashion for sea-bathing developed rapidly in the 19th century.

You’d have to walk a mile..

To put les pieds dans la mer/your feet in the water

In Trouville, I obsess over the gastronomie. I had excellent moules marinière 

at Les Vapeurs yesterday 👍 No empty or closed tight shells.

I never paid much attention to the history before but this visit I’m fascinated. 

This morning at the boulangerie I met Misha by chance, who I haven’t seen in ages. 

We walked along the beach. The tide was in 🤸🏾‍♀️

I put les pieds 🦶 dans l’eau wave 🌊 WOW!

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I’m Carol Gillott, an artist living in Paris. Every month I send out beautifully illustrated letters that capture the true Parisian experience.

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