Varengeville-sur-Mer (, literally ''Varengeville on Sea'') is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inféri ...

department in the

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

region in north-western

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

0 Varengeville-sur-Mer - Église Saint-Valéry (2)

Geography

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...

and farming commune situated by the coast of the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

and in the

Pays de Caux The Pays de Caux (, , literally ''Land of Caux'') is an area in Normandy occupying the greater part of the French ''département'' of Seine Maritime in Normandy. It is a chalk plateau to the north of the Seine Estuary and extending to the cliffs o ...

, some west of

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...

at the junction of the D27, D75 and the D123 roads. The commune has access to the pebble beach by means of a gap in the huge

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

cliffs.

Heraldry

Population

Places of interest

0 Varengeville-sur-Mer - Manoir d'Ango (1)

* The

manorhouse A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals wi ...

known as the Manoir d'Ango, built between 1530 and 1545 by Jean Ango, * The church of St. Valery, dating from the thirteenth century, sits atop the cliffs and is at risk of falling into the sea if the cliff were to collapse in any way. The churchyard holds the tomb of the

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

artist Georges Braque, topped by a mosaic of a white dove. Inside the church is a stained glass window by Braque depicting the

Tree of Jesse The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, shown in a branching tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It is the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a g ...

. * The chapel of St. Dominique, on the road from Varengeville to

, with more stained glass windows by Braque. * Two chateaus, at Saint-Aubin and Quesnot. * The sixteenth century hunting lodge of King Francis I. * The cemetery, by the sea, with a sixteenth-century sandstone cross and containing the tombs of some famous Frenchmen: the writer

Georges de Porto-Riche Georges de Porto-Riche (20 May 1849, Bordeaux, Gironde – 5 September 1930, Paris) was a French dramatist and novelist. Biography Georges was born into a Jewish-Italian assimilated family. At the age of twenty, his pieces in verse began to b ...

, composer Albert Roussel, Georges Braque and the architect, Paul Nelson. * The ‘Maison du Bois des Moutiers' Bois des Moutiers, near the church, was conceived by Guillaume Mallet in 1898 and designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. It was one of Lutyens' first commissions. A

Burne-Jones The Burne-Jones Baronetcy, of Rottingdean in the County of Sussex, and of The Grange in the Parish of Fulham in the County of London, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 May 1894 for the artist and designer E ...

tapestry hangs in the stairwell, its designs copied from Renaissance cloth in

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

's studio. The house is surrounded by a 9-acre park, with gardens designed by Miss Gertrude Jekyll. The estate was purchased by Jerome Seydoux in March 2019. * 'Shamrock', which has the biggest collection of

hortensia ''Hydrangea'', () commonly named the hortensia, is a genus of over 75 species of flowering plants native to Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. Most are shrubs tall, ...

s in the world, with more than 1000 varieties. This collection has been assembled by the ‘Conservatoire français des collections végétales spécialisées' (CCVS).

People

Cimetière marin de Varengeville-sur-mer (Seine-Maritime)

* Georges Braque (1883–1963), artist, buried in the cemetery * Albert Roussel (1869–1937), composer, buried in the cemetery *

(1849–1930), writer, buried in the cemetery *Jean-Francis Auburtin (1866–1930), artist, died here * Paul Nelson (1895–1979), architect, buried in the cemetery * Jean Ango (1480–1551), shipping magnate and navigator, lived here *

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...

(1840–1926), spent some time painting here

Twinning

The village is twinned with

Herstmonceux Herstmonceux ( , ; ) is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England, which includes Herstmonceux Castle. The Herstmonceux Medieval Festival is held annually in August. History The name comes from Anglo-Saxo ...

in East Sussex, in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

In literature

Naomi Mitchison, in her autobiographic book ''You May Well Ask'', relates that in the 1920s and 1930 she and her family, along with other families of their social circle in London, used to have vacations in Varengeville: "At the small village of Varengeville, on top of the cliffs a few miles west of

, the families with children lived in fairly basic chalets which were fine for us. We ate at the hotel and went down a steep path to the sand and rather chilly swimming, and tremendously enjoyed each other's company". Naomi Mitchison, You may well ask", London, 1979, Part I, Chap 7.