A touch of the English Channel gives birth to love…
The discovery of this wonderful little hotel, wonderfully located, will certainly be one of the favorites of this summer 2022. When a desire for Normandy and the seaside titillates the urban, not to say the stressed Parisian, the first thoughts go easily to Deauville, Trouville or Honfleur. Of course, but between these two well known and often too frequented cities, there are delicious and much more original little finds… The desire to share one of them with you today.
Photo : Michel Trehet
The village first of all : Villerville. This name will evoke to the oldest, a marvellous film, “A Monkey in Winter” where the Duo Gabin – Belmondo, just 60 years ago, was marvellous, served by the sublime dialogues of Audiard. It is perhaps also for this reason that discreetly, here in the heart of this picturesque village of fishermen on foot, many “stars” of the small screen and the media have bought a house there in recent years.
Photo : Michel Trehet
It is also surely for the beach as wild as endless or the walks are magnificent. On this Saturday afternoon, we were almost alone with our feet in the water… And it is as rare as it is pleasant! What is also pleasant is that the Planches and its colored tents, the “Vapeurs” and its iconic sole meunière as well as the old calvados, lovingly watched over around the Vieux Bassin are only a few minutes away.
Photo : Liana C Fung
But it is a hotel that I wanted to talk about, a cocoon full of charm where you really feel good. The main building of the current Bellevue was created in 1878 by Léon Carvalho, then director of the Opera Comique in Paris, in order to spend his vacations and enjoy the pleasures of sea bathing which was booming at that time. In 1910 it became a hotel-restaurant, the Grand Hôtel Paris-Bellevue, at a time when the village was developing rapidly with the arrival of the railroad. Numerous villas emerged in the city center where artists, writers and musicians came to stay each summer, such as the actress Paule Andral, Gabriel Fauré, Charles Gounod, Mistinguett, Georges Feydeau and the Queen of Naples.
Photo : Michel Trehet
Over time, the Hotel-Restaurant Le Bellevue has expanded and modernized while remaining a “family home” embodied by a century-old pine tree planted in the late 19th century, which has become the symbol of the address. Today it has 22 spacious rooms and 6 suites facing the sea, a restaurant opening onto a garden terrace with a panoramic view.
It all started with the reservation where a lovely young woman made sure that we found the type of room I wanted with the most beautiful view possible to see the beauty of the tides and the sky change with each passing hour. This deeply caring and human spirit was present throughout the stay with the impression, even in this first time, of being a particularly pampered regular.
Photo : Michel Trehet
Everything was made of little things and great pleasures like this snack at our arrival, like this space of care proposed to the most tense, like the tables in the garden at the time of the glass of sancerre and the Gin Tonic or like the beautiful table near the bay window which was proposed to us.
The cuisine is declined between land and sea in traditional presentations For my part the best was in the proposals of Seafood of a simplicity and a truth which had of equal only their absolute freshness and in a plate, of local cheeses, perfect An Envy of Livarot in addition, even made them seek in kitchen and the return with the 5 lines of the Colonel was accompanied as any request here of a broad smile. Everything is sincerely done in this authentic house to try to make the guests happy.
Photo : Liana C Fung
It was really the case in those moments and in that feeling of being at home. Tennis for the more athletic, private parking with electric hookups for the more forward-thinking, and always a friendly face to show you where to go for a book, a cigar, and a lot of other things you didn’t even know you wanted.
What spoils nothing is that the prices are wise for such a place he desire to return there very soon… I will finish these lines by thinking of the word of Suzanne Flon turned here: What is the unexpected? There is no better place than the Bellevue to rediscover it!
Xavier A
Hôtel-Restaurant Le Bellevue
7, Allée du Jardin Madame.
14113 Villerville.
Phone : 02 31 87 20 22
Mail : biendormir@bellevue-hotel.fr
