Criel-sur-Mer 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-Infér ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

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 geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

in northern

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 ar ...

Geography

A town of

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...

and

light industry Light industry are industries that usually are less capital-intensive than heavy industry and are more consumer-oriented than business-oriented, as they typically produce smaller consumer goods. Most light industry products are produced for ...

situated in the valley and at the mouth of the river

Yères The Yères () is a river of Normandy, France, in length, flowing through the department of Seine-Maritime. Geography The river's source is in the forest of Eu, just south of the village of Aubermesnil-aux-Érables. Its course takes a northe ...

, some northeast 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 Newh ...

. The commune is served by the D16, D940 and the D925 roads. As with much of this coastline, 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. Cha ...

cliffs look out over 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 Kan ...

. At Criel, they rise to 107m. Victims of coastal erosion, the chalk cliffs are regularly trimmed, forcing the authorities to ban construction, or even to expropriate the residents near the cliff. The cliffs lose more than one meter per year and now threatens the houses.

History

Criel gets its first mention in 1059, as “Criolium”. First cited in 1326, the port was still operating in 1584, but has since closed. In the 19th century, an amateur archeologist, Father Cochet, found traces of a

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...

site.
It was the

chef-lieu An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, L ...

of a canton during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. Criel remained essentially a village of fishermen and farmers until the arrival of the railway in 1872. The existence of the railway station helped establish two elegant seaside resorts here, one near the mouth of the

and the other at the suburb of Mesnil-Val. This was the golden age of the Normandy beach resort, that served as the prototype for Trouville,

Cabourg Cabourg (; nrf, Cabouorg) is a commune in the Calvados department, region of Normandy, France. Cabourg is on the coast of the English Channel, at the mouth of the river Dives. The back country is a plain, favourable to the culture of cereal. ...

and

Deauville Deauville () is a commune in the Calvados department, Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its harbour, race course, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino, and sumptuous hotels. The first Deauville Asian Film F ...

. In 1902, Criel took the name of Criel-sur-Mer.
The casino was lost in a storm in 1914 and the railway station didn’t survive the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

.
Tourism really took off with the advent of paid leave in 1936. Alongside

Le Tréport Le Tréport () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy, France. Geography A small fishing port and light industrial town situated in the Pays de Caux, some northeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D 940, the D 78 and t ...

, Criel was the nearest beach to Paris, easily accessible in the 1950s. Between 1950 and 1972, an industry developed exploiting the pebbles from the beach, for use either in the pharmaceutical industry or crushed for roads. In 2005, an English residential activity company named Kingswood began using Chateau de Chantereine as a base for its study tours. Since then, hundreds of children each year visit the chateau and its surrounding towns such as Dieppe, Eu and Le Treport as part of their studies. Many local schools have formed partnerships with UK schools with the support of Kingswood.

Heraldry

Population

Sights

* 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 with m ...

de Briançon, where the

Grande Mademoiselle Grande means " large" or " great" in many of the Romance languages. It may also refer to: Places *Grande, Germany, a municipality in Germany * Grande Communications, a telecommunications firm based in Texas * Grande-Rivière (disambiguation) *A ...

created a girls’ school in 1695. It now houses the

mairie In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually house ...

. * The church of St. Aubin, dating from the fifteenth century. * The

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. No ...

de Chantereine. * Some vestiges of the château du Baile. * The ruins of the church of St.Leonard. * A seventeenth century

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common typ ...

Geography

History

Heraldry

Population

Sights

See also