The lesser-known face of Granville: the Dior family

What is Granville’s connection with Christian Dior, the great couturier? Well, it’s his hometown! But before him, a resolutely modern family, made up of engineers, agronomists, industrialists, a mayor, a chemist, a postman, a minister and a doctor, left a mark in local history.

Stroll through the Rhumbs garden, Dior’s childhood home which is now a museum. You’ll be dazzled by the colours and scents of the roses that Marguerite and her children, Christian and Catherine, loved so much. Each of them turned their passion for flowers into a career, one creating perfumes and collections with evocative names, the other supplying roses to the perfumers of Grasse. Enter the house and discover Christian’s ‘Sistine Chapel’, as he liked to call the Japanese-style paintings in the entrance hall. You’ll be overwhelmed by the beauty of the collections and the personal belongings of the great couturier.

The railway station, built in 1870, was a major factor in the development of the superphosphate factories. In 1868, Lucien Léon Dior and his brother Louis Ainé opened their first natural fertiliser factory in Val-ès-Fleurs. It was moved to the outskirts of town along the Boscq river because the local authorities refused to allow chemical waste to be dumped there. With her 3 brothers (Amand, Victor the chemist and Alexandre, Christian’s grandfather), the company grew, won numerous medals and reached 500 employees in 1905 under the impetus of the next generation, Lucien Fils and Maurice Dior, Christian’s father. The family-run business developed an innovative industry in fertilisers and detergents and improved working conditions by creating the Société de Secours Mutuels et Pensions de Retraite for workers as early as 1883.

Once a district of mills and cod drying sheds, it is now the green lung of the seaside town. Marguerite Dior-Lanos (who became one of the few female doctors in 1904) bequeathed land to honour the plans of her father, Louis-Aîné Dior, who had become a drinks merchant. If you look at the buildings that bear witness to their activities, you might even be able to imagine the sound of horse-drawn carriages, the workers loading and unloading in front of the breweries or working in the coal briquette factory, the ice-cream parlours and the butcher’s shop founded by Georges. In the rue du Boscq, the pretty white house with its large stained glass windows, which was formerly a mill (now the offices of the Meuse breweries), and Georges’ house, overlooking the valley, show that the factory bosses actually lived where they worked.

The founder of this dynasty, Louis 1er Dior, a natural fertiliser merchant in St-Hilaire-du-Harcouët, descended from a family of farmers from the abbey of Savigny-le-Vieux. When he won the town’s sludge market, he also realised how important the port was for the development of his business. It was the first step in an incredible family saga that modernised the face of the old town.

Other places to visit include the Banque de France, which was Alexandre’s house, St Paul’s church, whose construction was initiated by Lucien Léon, then mayor of the city, the Calvaire house and the Villa Santa-Anna.