07November2026
GDL 26 – LECTURE: PEOPLE OF THE CITY AND PEOPLE OF THE SEA
The Saturday 07 November at 09 a.m45
Salle des fêtes Quai Baron Gérard 14520 PORT-EN-BESSIN-HUPPAIN
To mark the ‘Goût du Large’ festival, Marie-Pierre Labonne, a PhD holder in contemporary history, invites you to a talk in which she will guide you through the eyes of a young bourgeois on holiday in Port-en-Bessin in the 19th century.
During the 19th century, seaside holidays – which were still a relatively rare occurrence at the time – experienced a boom that laid the foundations for today’s seaside tourism. Port-en-Bessin was no exception to the curiosity of these city-dwellers holidaying in the small Norman ports.
Watching the boats go by, strolling along the quays and the beach, meeting the fishermen, sitting down at a restaurant table to enjoy fresh fish and other seafood recommended by the first tourist guides made available to day-trippers.
Charles Garnier, a young teenager from Bayeux, a student in Caen who regularly stayed in this harbour town, described all his observations in his journals. Fascinated by the maritime world, between 1872 and 1875 he recounts, page after page, life in the docks and on the quays of Port-en-Bessin; a still little-known perspective from a young bourgeois encountering the seafaring folk of the Normandy coast.
