Le Tréport () is a commune 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-Inf� ...

department in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The three adjoining towns of Le Tréport, Eu and Mers-les-Bains are known locally as the "Three Sisters".

Geography

A small

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

port and light industrial town situated 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 cl ...

, some northeast of

Dieppe Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...

at the junction of the D 940, the D 78 and the D 1015 roads. The mouth of the river Bresle meets the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

here, in between the high () chalk cliffs and the pebbly beach. Le Tréport-Mers station has rail connections to Beauvais. Le Tréport is also a sea-side resort and home to a casino.

History

Le Tréport (the ancient ''Ulterior Portus'') was a port of some note in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, when it experienced several invasions by English forces.

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

twice received

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

at Tréport, in 1843 and 1845. The patronage of Louis-Philippe and his family, residing regularly in Eu, inaugurated Le Tréport as a popular seaside resort. The Parisian upper middle class wasted no time in building villas on the waterfront and led a social life there until the eve of the Second World War. The Tréport-Mers railway station, opened on 12 May 1872, gave Parisians access to the seaside resort and stirred its development. A casino was built in 1896–1897. An electric tramway served the city from 1902, as a corollary of the tourist trade. (The operation of the Eu-Le Tréport-Mers tramway ceased in 1934.) The British World War I soldier and later author, Arthur Stanley Bullock, who was stationed in Le Tréport after the Armistice in 1918, was captivated by the town, nestling at the bottom of cliffs which could be ascended by 365 steps or by a cliff railway. Bullock recorded in a memoir: "The sea floor must have been covered by multicoloured sands, for on a clear day, looking from the cliffs straight down into the sea, it seemed that one was looking at a vast abstract canvas of blues, yellows, reds and greens." While staying there, Bullock also painted a study of a French fisher girl with a basket on her back. 181002 treport jakobswiki

Under German occupation in 1940–44, the town's inhabitants experienced the hardships and oppression shared by other parts of northern France. This included deportation of residents to concentration camps. A college in Tréport was subsequently named after Rachel Salmona, a 10-year-old girl interned in nearby camps at Dieppe and Drancy, before deportation to the more notorious Auschwitz in February 1943. Rachel, her sister, mother, father and grandmother all died as a result of deportation. To deter Allied landings in the Tréport area, the German Army tunnelled into the sea cliffs, creating several subterranean galleries. (This tunnel complex, which bears the name of Kahl-Burg rench language article has since been made more accessible and has been opened to visitors.) Most of the villas in Tréport were destroyed during the Normandy campaign of 1944. The town was liberated by the

3rd Canadian Division The 3rd Canadian Division is a formation of the Canadian Army responsible for the command and mobilization of all army units in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as Northwestern Ontario including the ...

on 1 September 1944. Peace was followed by efforts to restore and increase Tréport's appeal as a tourist destination. Reconstructed architecture features prominently on the beachfront. Until the 1970s, an oyster bed, where visitors could taste the freshest possible seafood, was located at the very end of the pier, just below the cliffs.

Population

Administration

The current mayor of Le Tréport is Laurent Jacques of the PCF political party. He became 1st vice-mayor following the 2014 municipal elections (2014-2020). He took over as mayor in January 2016 upon the death of his predecessor Alain Longuent ( PCF).

Main sights

* The remains of an eleventh-century abbey * The

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

of St. Julien * The

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

* The new

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

, built in 1907–08, and restored in 2006, linking the town with the cliff-tops * The church of St. Jacques du Tréport, dating from the fourteenth century * Two

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

s (the Vieux Tréport museum and the local history museum)

Prominent residents

* Paul Paray, conductor, was born in Le Tréport in 1886.

In popular culture

Le Tréport was used as the location for the 2014 French police thriller ''Witnesses ("Les témoins"). The series, which was written by Hervé Hadmar and Marc Herpoux, starred Thierry Lhermitte and Marie Dompnier. Its style and tempo have been compared to Scandinavian noir such as ''

Wallander Wallander may refer to: TV, film, books * Kurt Wallander, a fictional Swedish police inspector in novels by Henning Mankell :*Wallander (film series), ''Wallander'' (film series), Swedish-language television films of the Wallander stories starring ...

'', '' The Bridge'' and '' The Killing''. It formed the background for

François Ozon François Ozon (; born 15 November 1967) is a French film director and screenwriter. Ozon is considered one of the most important modern French filmmakers. His films are characterized by aesthetic beauty, sharp satirical humor and a free-wheeli ...

's 2020 film '' Summer of 85''. It is the scene of Dominique Choisy's 2017 film '' My Life with James Dean.''

References

External links

Website of Le Tréport - Eu - Mers

Ville du Tréport en photo, musée du Tréport, musée de la poupée contemporaine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Treport Communes of Seine-Maritime Seaside resorts in France