Coast is calling

Charming villages along the Alabaster Coast, near Dieppe, boast fine houses with sea and river views, as Carolyn Reynier discovers

- Carolyn Reynier

In anticipation of being able to venture abroad again, this month I’m taking you just across the English Channel to Normandy and the town of Varengeville-sur-Mer on the Alabaster Coast in the department of Seine-Maritime.

Known as the village of light, it has seduced artists, musicians and poets throughout history, including some very famous names. Georges Braque, co-founder of Cubism along with Picasso, is buried here in the clifftop cemetery, the cimetière marin; Claude Monet also painted over a hundred canvases here, including the 12th-century church of Saint-Valéry and La cabane du douanier.

Catalan artist Joan Miró lived here from 1930 to 1940 and started Constellations, his series of small paintings, at Varengeville in 1939, the American sculptor Alexander Calder summered here and musician Albert Roussel, who composed The Spider’s Feast ballet and lived nearby at Vasterival, is also buried here.

The landscape is one of shaded, secret valleuses (valleys) and inland depressions allowing the sea to enter between high chalk cliffs. As for flora, you can see magnificent rhododendrons, the Shamrock Garden has the most important collection of hydrangeas in the world, and the five-hectare clifftop Bois des Communes, an espace naturel sensible, has unusual vegetation for Upper Normandy, reminiscent of Brittany or Scotland.

Ancient flints, pottery remains, statues and houses show that the area has been inhabited for quite some time, but we will look at more recent property between coast and country, in and around Varengeville-sur-Mer, and inland between the valleys of the Saâne and Scie.

CHARACTER HOUSES