2011/2012

Welcome to Dieppe ................................................................... 5

Getting there ............................................................................... 6

A town for all seasons ..............................................................7

Castle treasures..................................................................... 8

A seat in the stalls .................................................................. 9

Swimming and more ......................................................... 10

Children’s world................................................................. 10

A taste of history....................................................................... 11

Ville d’art et d’histoire ........................................................12

A Canadian link forever......................................................15

The British connection.......................................................... 16

The poets who fled from Wimpole Street ................. 16

Ferry tales ...................................................................................17

Voyages of discovery.............................................................. 19

On the trail of Impressionism .......................................20

On your bike ! ..........................................................................22

Gardens to visit .....................................................................23

Eating out ....................................................................................24

What’s that fish? ..................................................................25

Town map ....................................................................................26

A recipe from Dieppe .........................................................32

Night life ..................................................................................... 33

Shopping .................................................................................... 34

Market day ............................................................................ 34

Where to stay ........................................................................... 36

Words to bridge the gap… ................................................... 38

Tips for Travellers.................................................................. 39

Hotels and restaurants .........................................................42

What’s on… ............................. 46

The French are funny .............................................................50

Useful numbers ........................................................................51

Map references in the text refer to town plan on pages 26, 27.

Contents

3

“A Taste of Dieppe” is written by Peter Avis. Layout Ludwig Malbranque; new photographs by Erwan Lesné at the Communications Service of Dieppe Municipal Council. Published by Ville de Dieppe. Printed by Imprimerie Dieppoise. © Peter Avis and Ville de Dieppe 2011. Dieppe has a website: see www.dieppe.fr where there is a blog in English.

Welcome to Dieppe

Sébastien JumelMayor of Dieppe

WE hope you enjoy your visit to Dieppe, whether

you are passing through on a journey elsewhere or

you will be happy to linger a while in our port city.

Dieppe is situated on one of the crossroads of

Europe. We are well experienced in receiving

people from many lands, and many have left their

imprint on our shared history.

In the world of today, our problems are often

shared: we face similar environmental challenges,

and the impact of the “bank crisis” impinges upon

the lives of bankers’ victims across frontiers. In

solidarity, we need to find common solutions to

common tasks.

But take time off in Dieppe and its hinterland

from your cares. Whether your interests be

gastronomic, cultural, historical, sporting or

simply sitting on the beach or absorbing the

atmosphere on a café terrace, Dieppe is open to

you. And remember, please, to come again.

5

Getting thereMOST people arrive in Dieppe, as they have for centuries, by the ferry from Newhaven. It’s an all-year service, run efficiently by LD Lines on behalf of the Seine Maritime council, which saved the line from collapse in 2005 by buying the crumbling Newhaven ferry port as well as two new ferries. One of them, the Seven Sisters, sails on the Newhaven-Dieppe route. The other, le Côte d’Albâtre, currently serves Portsmouth-Le Havre.

Sailing times from Newhaven are normally at 9.30am and 10.30pm, and from Dieppe at 5am and 6pm. BUT ALWAYS CHECK: the timetable is amended when tidal changes affect entry into the ports. Try Sue’s big English breakfast while waiting at the Newhaven terminal.

The crossing usually takes under four hours. When the ferry is full, disembarking with a car can entail a frustrating wait, particularly at the Newhaven end where the narrow ramp in the dilapidated port allows only one exit from the ship. Foot passengers escape faster.

Cabins are spacious, clean and comfortable, though expensive for a single person. The bar staff are friendly and the cafeteria serves passable meals (not cheap); the television has, peculiarly, only French channels; small children have a delightful romping area (sometimes less appreciated by adjacent and non-romping adults); there is wi-fi for computers at a price, if you can manage to find

ROUENLE HAVRE

NEWHAVEN

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER

AMIENS

LE TRÉPORT

DIEPPE

St-VALERY-SUR-SOMME

St-VALERY-EN-CAUX

FÉCAMP

6

To PARIS

To CALAIS

To PORTSMOUTH

a spot to access it with the help of the information desk. Outdoor seating on the top deck in summer.

To book a crossing, you can ring free on 0 800 9171 201 from the UK or 0 800 650 100 from France. Or email tourism.booking@transmancheferries.com Wrinklies over

the age of 60 get 20 % reduction if they proclaim their age when booking. Frequent travellers can also earn reductions.

TUG-Horizon is a Franco-British association of ferry users. For information or observations on the service, contact tugnews@dbmail.com and Brian Collinge, a shrewd British polymath living in Dieppe, will reply.

Coming by road from Calais or Boulogne, follow the uncrowded motorway towards Paris and Rouen, leaving it before arriving at Abbeville, and then follow the D925 through Le Tréport to Dieppe. About two hours’ journey from Calais.

Travelling by train from Paris St Lazare, change at Rouen. Journey time upwards of two hours. The service is not frequent and the last train from Paris leaves at 7.50pm.

Click on www.dieppe.fr

DIEPPE has a constantly updated website. Go to www.dieppe.fr and you will find the latest news of the town and local activities; videos from the past two years (some of them funny); and up-to-the- minute weather reports, with instant webcam of the seafront, marina and port entrance. There is also a blog in English: “Dieppe seen by Peter Avis”, in which a British journalist reflects on the human scene.

SEASIDE towns come in all types and sizes. Some are snobby and some are a bit rough; some are sleepy and some are lively; some shut up shop in the winter and some don’t.

Dieppe is a town for all seasons, and a town that can be enjoyed by all sorts of people: it has a rather democratic flavour about it. The restaurants range from a few expensive establishments to a galaxy of more modest places where you can get your fill at no crippling expense.

This town of 35,000 population is the cultural capital for the surrounding region. The DSN (Dieppe Scène Nationale) offers a rich programme of theatre, dance

A town for all seasons

7

and film. And there is plenty of music all over the place, in and out of doors. The Château Musée, the Cité de la Mer and the water activities centre Les Bains are open

all year round. Stop in Dieppe for a day or a week. You won’t have to be bored.

Over the centuries, many people from across the watery road to the north have been drawn by Dieppe’s special charms to linger here and even to put down roots along Normandy’s maritime fringe.

JMW Turner traipsed along this coast with his sketchbook in search of shipwrecks to draw; Queen Victoria’s playboy son, the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), came to Dieppe for naughty occasions; the Marquess of Salisbury, Victoria’s last prime minister, spent parliamentary recesses with his imported bottles of scotch at his house in Puys; Oscar Wilde made Dieppe his first call on being released from Reading Gaol; Winston Churchill bathed in the sea and traipsed up the steep Rue des Fontaines in his courtship of Clementine Hosier; humorist and caricaturist, the “incomparable” Max Beerbohm, dallied with actress Constance Collier; and Walter Sickert painted here and procreated a son with Augustine Levain, a redoubtable red-headed fishmonger in Le Pollet.

Winston Churchill on Dieppe beach in 1911

King Edward VII

8

Castle treasures

DIEPPE Castle has kept a stern and watchful eye over the town for half a millennium. Perched on the flank of the western cliff, it served during centuries as fortress against enemy incursions, or as barracks and military storehouse. The

oldest parts of the castle were built in the fourteenth century, as a defence against the English during the Hundred Years’ War. Today, most of its foreign visitors still come from England, but with peaceful intent.

Bought by the town council after the First World War, the Château became the Château Musée in 1923. Its collection has been expanded to the status of a national treasure house of art. Its main claim to fame is in its collection of ivories, based upon an ancient trade and craft that employed hundreds of people in the town. The collection of paintings include works by Lebourg, Courbet, Delacroix, Renoir, Pissarro, Sickert and Braque.

The museum is open every day from June to September, but closed on Tuesdays during the rest of the year. Entry is free for under-26s and job seekers.

Pissarro’s painting of

Dieppe port

All these people enjoyed the charm of one of the most picturesque working ports in northern France; they blended into local life and enriched the Dieppe experience. Countless painters have found a special light in the sky here; and writers such as Georges Simenon,

plus film makers such as Claude Chabrol, have found inspiration in the streets around the harbour.

Of course, others have come here only for the beer – or the calvados – but they, too, may have contributed some of the magic to this special corner of France. The beery visitors will be happy to note the council has opened a new free public toilet on the Place Nationale (D4). Just by the statue of Abraham Duquesne.

Explore and enjoy the town, and its face upon the sea: a good introduction is to take an hour’s trip on the street train that starts from outside the corner of the Quai Henri IV in the summer months.

Sit for a while on a café terrace, maybe at the classy Tribunaux in the town centre; the bustling Brazza beneath the trees at the back end of St Rémy Church; the Sarajevo at the top end of the Rue de la Barre; the ever welcoming Mieux Ici Qu’en Face in Le Pollet, with its unparalleled view across the port; one of the busy bars on the Quai Henri IV; or – only from April to September - the breezy Bar-O-Mètre at the western end of the seafront, where you can watch the fiery sun sink into the sea.

9

A seat in the stalls

DIEPPE, a town of 35,000 inhabitants, can boast a cultural centre that would be the pride of many larger towns in Britain. DSN (Dieppe Scène Nationale) at the Centre Jean Renoir offers both live performances and cinema in its 700-seat theatre opposite the railway station. It has developed an impressive reputation in contemporary dance.

The DSN programmes contemporary and archive films, including many that would not get a showing on commercial screens. All foreign (ie non-French) productions are sub-titled in French and never dubbed.

Upstairs at the Centre Jean Renoir is the town’s main public library, with rooms for reading and listening to CDs. The bar / restaurant downstairs has a checkered history: it’s not always functioning.

Georges Simenon

Children’s world

CHILDREN don’t need to be bored in Dieppe. There is bathing and plenty of water play at the new swimming pool complex (Les Bains) at the

western end of the seafront. The minigolf, and a children’s playground, are just next door. Another playground is in the park behind the Cultural Centre.

The beach has sand to play on at low tide, when the rock pools at the western end reveal their secrets.

A visit to the Cité de la Mer, behind the Hôtel de l’Europe at the eastern end of the seafront, is

rewarding for children and parents alike, with its aquarium and its exhibits explaining how tides work, pebbles are formed and fishing has developed.

Children’s books and videos abound at the public library opposite the railway station. Or visit Lire sur la plage (the ‘‘Read on the beach’’ hut near the minigolf) in summer.

Swimming and more

WHERE would you take a swim in the open air all round the year? That pleasure is available at Les Bains, the leisure centre for water activities at the western end of the seafront.

The outdoor pool is heated to a comfortable 25°C. Indoors, the complex has pools, Jakuzzis and slides to suit the needs of all ages. And you can tone up with various water treatments on offer.

‘The Penguins’bathe in the

sea all roundthe year

Children’splayground

Lulu at the minigolf

10

DIEPPE is sometimes called the Viking town. It traces its history as a human settlement and port back to the arrival of the Vikings on this coast at the beginning of the tenth century AD. Of course, there were other people living in these parts before then, and the Romans passed this way before the Vikings. But the Romans did not leave such important traces of their occupation here as they did elsewhere.

The Vikings, from Scandinavia, settled in and around Dieppe because of the hospitable harbour they found for their ships at the river estuary that cuts through a forbidding line of cliffs. The name Dieppe derives from the Viking term “djepp”, meaning “deep”.

Dieppe became an important place on the map in the eleventh century in the period when England and France, or more particularly England and Normandy, became linked in a common history, with contesting rulers claiming ownership of each other’s lands.

In 1066 (the one date in history some of us can recall), William, Duke of Normandy, sailed with his army to Sussex where he deposed King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings. The Norman arrow that killed Harold changed history. That first invasion was launched from the Bay of the River Somme; the following year (1087), William sent supplies to his occupying army from the growing port of Dieppe.

William the Conqueror (or William the Bastard, as French history also records him) brought more than

A taste of history

The BayeuxTapestry © Cdt 14

11

soldiers to England: in the wake of the Norman invasion, came the feudal system of government, the Norman Gothic architecture that still dominates our ecclesiastical landscape, and many French words that enrich for all time what the French describe as ‘‘la langue de Shakespeare’’.

Dieppe has lived through many hostile visits over the centuries. Attacked by the King of France (a rival then to the Duke of Normandy), Dieppe was razed to the ground

in 1195. It was to suffer a similar fate five centuries later when, in 1694, an Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Berkeley bombarded and burned down the town in retaliation for attacks by French privateers

against English ships in the Channel.Dieppe had become a fortified town from the end of

the fourteenth century, when construction of the castle began: the castle, and one gate of the fortified wall that was built round the town, still stand.

Dieppe on fireafter the 1694

bombardment

If you don’t have the time

for a guided visit of Dieppe,

you can pick up an audioguide

(in English) from the

Tourist Office

© ar

chive

s

Ville d’art et d’histoire

WANT a guided tour of Dieppe? Then get in touch with Dieppe Ville d’art et d’histoire (DVAH), either through the Tourist Office (E4) by the

Pont Ango, or at the headquarters of the team of guides in the Place Louis Vitet (D6), off the Quai Duquesne and near the railway station.

The erudite and enterprising guides are busy through the year organising thematic visits of the town – sometimes by bike. Some of the lectures are in English, but you can pick up a lot even if your understanding of French is minimal. DVAH also organises workshops and tours for children and teenagers. There’s much to see, and much to learn.

12

In the sixteenth century, the town – previously nestled beneath the castle – was extended towards the east, into the area now known as le Bout du Quai, after a displacement of the Arques river estuary enabling a larger port to be developed. Dieppe was for many years one of the most important ports of France: its mariners embarked on voyages of discovery that opened up large areas of the African and American continents to European predatory trade and conquest.

The town – or its more fortunate inhabitants - knew prosperity in the seventeenth century, thanks to its thriving commerce, the expanding fishing industry and the local craft of ivory-carving. Local hero Abraham Duquesne, whose monument stands on the Place Nationale, gained fame as the vice-admiral of the fleet of King Louis XIV (the king didn’t give him the honour of Marshal of France, because he insisted on remaining a Protestant). Repression, followed by the expulsion, of tens of thousands of enterprising Protestants (Huguenots) from Normandy after 1685 did no favours to the economy of Dieppe, but benefited the countries such as England where they found refuge.

After that bombardment of Dieppe in 1694, Louis XIV ordered the reconstruction of the previously wooden-built town in flint and sandstone. The present appearance of the town centre, clustered around the port, bears the mark of the king’s architect, Monsieur de Ventabren, three centuries ago. The arcades of the Quai Duquesne are the consequence of Admiral Berkeley’s unfriendly attentions.

After the fall of the Napoleonic empire in 1815, Dieppe developed into the kind of town we can recognise today. Seaside bathing was introduced here in the 1820s (following its earlier invention in Brighton).

The Duchesse de Berry, Italian-born and married into a French Bourbon family, is credited with having turned Dieppe into a seaside resort for her aristocratic friends. Her later infamy, acquired from supporting a failed coup in 1831 against the newly crowned King Louis Philippe (who came from the rival Orleanist dynasty) gets a mention in the history books.

The feistyDuchesse de Berry

Abraham Duquesne

13

But it is not celebrated in Dieppe, where the fiery signora is identified rather with the pastries on sale in the shop that bears her name.

The railway age that began in the middle of the nineteenth century led to the development of Dieppe as both a place to stay and as a staging post on the shortest route between London and Paris.

Dieppe became a favourite place for artists and writers to pursue their creative activities, and to have fun. Artists including Delacroix, Pissarro, Blanche, Beardsley, Sickert and Braque all stayed and worked here. As did the writers Dumas, Wilde and many minor scribblers. The composers Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Roussel were lovers of Dieppe and its hinterland, too. In the twenty-first century, an artist such as the studious painter and illustrator Lawrence Mynott feels at ease in Dieppe, sitting before his glass of rosé on a cafe terrace.

If seaside pleasures were for the well-off in the nineteenth century, they became available to most people in the twentieth, a century that was also bloodied twice by world wars. In 1936, three years before Hitler’s armies swept across Europe,

paid holidays were introduced by the Popular Front government in France, and Parisian families arrived in their droves to cool their feet in the frothy Channel waters.

Paid holidays were won in 1936

Lady bathers of la Belle Époque

© D.R

.

14

A Canadian link forever

THE people of Dieppe and the people of Canada share a long history. It can be traced back to the sixteenth century when sailors from Dieppe and Fécamp in Normandy started to fish for cod on the banks off Newfoundland, a trade that was to develop into a major industry in the nineteenth century, when salt cod acquired an important place in the many people’s diet.

Another link: in 1639, three nuns from Dieppe sailed across the Atlantic to run the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec: the first hospital to be set up by a religious order in North America.

On 19 August 1942, nearly a thousand young Canadians died on the beach at Dieppe and nearby shores. Canadians soldiers, stationed in southern England, were the main participants in the allied army that took part in the Dieppe Raid, a spectacular and disastrous show of force against the occupying German troops.

The human cost of Operation Jubilee, which served the propaganda machines of the rival governments involved, totalled 1,380 allied troops (including 913 Canadians) killed and 1,600 wounded; and 345 Germans killed and 268 wounded.

The raid is commemorated annually in Dieppe and Newhaven, the English port from which the raiding force sailed, and there is a Jubilee museum behind the Mercure hotel.

There were no seaside holidays between September 1939 and September 1944, with the German army in occupation. On 19 August 1942, the ill-organised Dieppe Raid took place, leaving a thousand and more young soldiers, most of them Canadian, dead on the beach.

Since the liberation in 1944, Dieppe has shared the triumphs and vicissitudes of the post-war world. Its industries and port activities have suffered from the

economic pressures that have spread prosperity so unevenly across the world. Dieppe is not a rich town; life is not easy for many of its inhabitants, but there is a richness of experience, stemming from a long and often troubled history, to be shared by Dieppe with all those who pass this way.

Canadian soldiers liberate Dieppe in 1944

15

The British connectionBRITONS have been visiting and staying in Dieppe for centuries. The first encounters, in the Middle Ages, were mostly warlike when the land of Normandy was often fought over by rival kings and dukes from either side of the Channel.

A more peaceful connection developed in the nineteenth century when a regular ferry line was developed, linking the two coasts. The seaside was invented first in Brighton and then in Dieppe as a pleasurable pursuit for the leisured classes: the working classes were to have their turn in the twentieth century, when paid holidays were won by the trade union movement.

Dieppe became a haven for artists and writers from across the Channel during the reign of Queen Victoria. It is fascinating to reflect that, at the close of the nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde, Max Beerbohm and Walter Sickert, along with Prince Edward and Lord Salisbury, could all have been enjoying their separate pleasures in Dieppe at the same time. And they undoubtedly all repaired for refreshment at the Café des Tribunaux, at some time or other.

Before and after the First World War, several thousand English people lived in Dieppe, many of them in search of cheaper living to ease the strain on their modest middle-

class or depleted aristocratic incomes. They (or their wives, or servants) frequented the English grocer, whose faded sign was recently restored on the wall opposite the Tribunaux.

The story of the English colony in Dieppe, and its pleasures and dissensions, during the century before World War Two, is charmingly told in two books of Simona Pakenham: Pigtails and Pernod and Sixty Miles from England. The author, who died aged 94 in 2010, was an enrichment of that story herself.

Oscar Wilde

Walter Sickert

The poets who fled from Wimpole Street

ELIZABETH Barrett Browning and her secret husband Robert, made Dieppe their first refuge when they fled from her dominating father, Mr Barrett of Wimpole Street, in September 1846. Elizabeth, regarded by many as the greatest woman poet of the nineteenth century, was also in Dieppe in 1858 when local ivory artist Theodore Blard sculpted her portrait (left). The poets’ love story is told on www.dieppe.fr/blogs/3/articles/58.

16

The British connection continues today, if less evidently so than a decade and more ago when duty-free crowds tumbled daily off ferries into the centre of town, making many purchases and sometimes much noise. A trickle of Dieppe-loving commuters from across the Channel continues to help the ferry line going, and some, such as Nick Wellings, the fan of Flaubert and railway timetables, and the recently deceased and much loved jazzman John Boyett, get regarded as colourful local characters.

The town that has attracted such an odd collection of English-speaking people as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, King Edward VII, Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, Walter Sickert, Simona Pakenham, Edward Ardizzone, John Willett and Gavin Henderson (to name just a few) will accept and absorb your oddities, too.

17

FERRIES have been sailing between the Sussex coast and Dieppe for more than two centuries. A regular service began in 1790, the year after the French Revolution, when the packet Princess Royal left Shoreham every Tuesday evening and returned from Dieppe on Saturday evening. A contemporary leaflet announced that the vessel had two elegant cabins, each containing eight beds, and that ‘‘horses and carriages must be sent on the day before sailing’’.

Entering Dieppe’s old ferry port in

the 1930s

Ferry tales©

D.R.

War between Britain and France during the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte (called ‘‘Boney’’ or ‘‘Bogeyman’’ to frighten naughty little English children) interrupted the regular service and it was not until June 1825 that the General Steam Navigation Company advertised that its

steamer, the Eclipse, would leave Newhaven for Dieppe, calling at Brighton Chain Pier on the way, every Tuesday and Saturday (weather permitting), and returning on Monday and Thursday.

The line received a boost in 1847, when new railway connections on both sides of the Channel provided the shortest and most efficient regular route between London and Paris. The crossing took six hours and 5,000 passengers were carried between Newhaven and Dieppe during the first season (compared with some 300,000 a year today and a million or more in the glory days of cross-Channel travel in the early 1990s).

As the line developed, British and later French ferries, belonging to their respective railway companies, maintained a joint service. The ships evolved, from the paddle steamers of the 1840s, to the ‘‘screws’’ of the 1890s, to the car ferries of the 1960s, and to the variety of super ferries and fast ferries that have been crossing the Channel since the 1980s.

Wars, industrial disputes and managerial pull-outs have all disrupted the service from time to time. In the move towards privatisation, British and French Rail both divested themselves of the line which bumbled along in the incompetent hands of various private companies for several years.

Today’s ferries have stabilisers to tackle rough

seas

18

“Boney”

DIEPPE is a perfect hub for voyages of discovery in the ancient hinterland of Seine-Maritime (which used to be called Seine-Inférieure, until dignitaries twigged it that this designation suggested inferiority as well as indicating the lower reaches of a river).

There are fascinating routes to follow, whether you be walking, riding a bike or driving a car. Immediately to the west of Dieppe is the coastal village of Pourville, at the mouth of the lush valley of the Scie, a spot cherished and painted many times by the painter Claude Monet (who

Voyages of discovery

Braque’s stained glass windowin Varengeville church

The seacliff cemetery at the church of Varengeville

Tourist posterfrom 1932© fonds ancien et local de Dieppe

In 2005, when the line was threatened with permanent closure, the Seine-Maritime Council stepped in to save the day, buying up the dilapidated Newhaven ferry port at the same time. The French council ordered two new ferries, the Côte d’Albâtre and the Seven Sisters, equipped for freight and passenger traffic. The running of the line has since been delegated to a private operator, LD Lines, which transferred the Côte d’Albâtre to its Portsmouth-Le Havre route. This unfortunately reduces the crossings between Newhaven and Dieppe, and local restaurateurs are not best pleased that no ferry arrives in Dieppe in time for the Brits to have lunch. (Hungry and gourmet Brits are disappointed too.)

The history of the Newhaven-Dieppe line - on which Ho Chi Minh worked as a pastry cook and so many illustrious travellers (including some dodgy characters) have sailed - is recorded in a number of books. Many mementoes of the line have been gathered by Peter Bailey and his colleagues in the Local History and Maritime Museum in Newhaven’s Paradise Park. Normally open at the weekend, and in the week during summer.

19

© ar

chive

s

didn’t rate Dieppe). We would like to suggest you walk to Pourville along the beach from Dieppe at low tide – clambering over the rocks and pebbles takes about an hour – but such an adventure is officially discouraged, as a chunk of the friable chalk cliffs could fall on you when you pass beneath. And what will you think of the

occasional naturist you may encounter on the way? (Hopefully you will be mutually tolerant.)

You can also walk to Pourville taking the top road above the cliffs (a pity there is no pathway to keep you safely clear of the cars for the whole journey) and enjoy the stupendous view along the coast to the west as you descend to the village. There are an oyster bar, not too cheap, and other seafront restaurants when you reach Pourville.

Further to the west is the well-heeled village of Varengeville, where Edwin Lutyens constructed an English house (Les Moutiers) in tune with the nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement, before he achieved

fame by creating the Viceroy’s Palace in New Delhi and the Cenotaph in London.

Sainte Marguerite, with its harmonious Romanesque church, follows before you arrive at the quaint seaside resort of Quiberville that recalls (if you are old enough)

Overlooking Pourville ©

arch

ives

On the trail of Impressionism

THE school of impressionism in the history of art is closely associated with the landscapes of Normandy. It began with Claude Monet’s canvas, “Impression, sunise”, painted in Le Havre in 1872. Impressionist works are to be found in galleries across the region. A fascinating guide, “Impressionist Normandy”, is on sale (in French or English) from the Dieppe Tourist Office.

20

Claude Monet

the English seaside of fifty years ago. This is where the Dillons, Glyn and Siobhan, from the London artistic community, celebrated their wedding feast in colourful international company a few years ago. Quiberville is a locally renowned place to buy freshly caught fish, displayed on stalls adjacent to the sea.

Picturesque Veules-les-Roses, which prides itself on having the shortest river in France to trickle through its streets, is next call along the coast, unless you pop in first to La Chapelle-sur-Dun, where the grocer’s shop doubles up as village restaurant for those in search of country atmosphere and country food. We saw a Labrador dog sitting there at table with its owner: perfectly well behaved, both of them, and both enjoying lunch. The dog didn’t partake of the complimentary pot of wine.

There follow the more famous towns of St Valery-en-Caux, Fécamp and Etretat, before you arrive at the port of Le Havre at the mouth of the Seine. St Valery, which was smashed up in the last war, has fish stalls on the promenade; Fécamp has its crazy pseudo-Gothic Bénédictine Palace and Etretat its memories of Maupassant and Edwardian English visitors. Le Havre is an architectural storehouse from the 1950s, if you are a fan of 1950s concrete architecture.

The winding and majestic Seine river inland from Le Havre is decorated with a string of ancient abbeys, including the ruined Jumièges (famous also for its nearby cherry orchards) and the restored St Georges de Boscherville. Visit Villequier, next to Caudebec-en-Caux, and the museum devoted to Victor Hugo and the family of his daughter Léopoldine: she and her young husband were tragically drowned in the river there in 1843, six months after their marriage.

Along the coast to the east of Dieppe, you discover Les Trois Villes Sœurs (the Three Sister Towns) of Le Tréport, Eu and Mers-les-Bains. The Sisters are very different but

The abbey of Jumièges

Art nouveau facades atMers-les-Bains

© D.R

.

21

manage to get along together. On the way to the Sisters, pop in to visit Susan Tailleux at Les Trois Clos des Prés at Criel-sur-Mer. She is an enterprising American from New Hampshire who makes cider and eau de vie de cidre from the apples in her orchard and sells the pungent products in Dieppe market on Saturday mornings.

Le Tréport is a funful Sister without pretensions: a busy fishing port with quayside restaurants whose fare can surpass what you will find in snobbier towns. The restored funicular offers free trips up and down the highest chalk cliff in continental Europe. Jacques Louchard’s ballad “Oh les beaux dimanches” is evocative of the place.

Mers-les-Bains, at the opposite side of the River Bresle estuary, is a more sedate Sister, proud of her riotous art nouveau frontage and quieter beachside culture.

Eu (which we have to call Ville d’Eu to avoid uttering the embarrassing verbal juxtaposition ‘‘Maire d’Eu’’ when referring to its mayor) is the royal Sister: Queen Victoria stayed with French King Louis Philippe in his palace there, and the two monarchs picnicked in the nearby forest during young Victoria’s visit to seal the first Entente Cordiale in 1843.

After leaving the Seine-Maritime department (county) to enter Picardy, of which Mers is an outpost, carry on along the coast towards Calais and visit St Valery-sur-Somme, at the mouth of the tidal Somme river. William

The bay of theRiver Somme

On your bike!

MANY Britons who land on the Alabaster Coast arrive via the ferry from Newhaven. Some of them make use of the Transmanche Ferries offer to transport their bicycles free. Just announce you are bringing a bike with you when you buy your ticket. The price of passenger (with or without bike) was about £30 for a five-day return in spring 2011.

If you don’t have a bike, you can hire one and also get minor repairs at the train station: 1€ for an hour, 3€50 for half a day, 5€50 for a day and 15€ for a week. Same price but bigger deposit for an electrically boosted bike. For bike repairs and purchases, there is a shop in Rouxmenil-Bouteilles on the southern edge of Dieppe.

From Dieppe, you can ride six kilometres south to Arques-la-Bataille and join the Avenue Verte which provides a 40-kilometre motor traffic-free route to Forges-les-Eaux. It is planned eventually to extend the route to Paris.

Information on other cycle routes in Normandy can be obtained from the Dieppe Tourist Office (0232 144060 and www.dieppetourisme.com).

The French are generally respectful towards cyclists: car and lorry drivers give them a wide berth when overtaking them on the road. Cyclists become national heroes when they star in the annual Tour de France.

22

the Conqueror sailed from there to change history at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Somme estuary is a gathering place for a rich collection of aquatic birds most of which surprisingly manage to escape the hunters’ pellets.

Just inland from Dieppe is Arques-la-Bataille, with its ruined castle of Henri IV (Dieppe’s restaurant quayside is appropriately named after the hedonistic monarch); its grand medieval church; its art deco school building; and its impressive lakeside social housing that honours a resourceful local council. Nearby to Arques, go walking in the forest or go by bike or foot on a peaceful journey of many kilometres along the Avenue Verte leading to Forges-les-Eaux and eventually beyond.

South of Arques are such treasures as the seventeenth-century Château de Bosmelet, where the loquacious republican Baron (or Monsieur) Bosmelet will tell you, in impeccable Oxford English, delicious stories of his ancestral home of Louis XIII vintage. Feel daunted by the 300-year-old avenue of limes that have survived many vicissitudes, including the presence of a V1 (doodlebug)

launching pad in the château grounds in 1944, from which the German army bombarded southern England during the last months of the Second World War.

Nearby (and on the railway route from Dieppe to Rouen) is the village of Cleres,

Remains ofthe castle atArques-la-Bataille

The Château de Bosmelet

Gardens to visit

IF gardens grab you, Normandy has plenty for you to visit. The most illustrious garden surrounds Les Moutiers, the English country house at Varengeville designed by Edwin Lutyens: the garden, with its magnificent rhododendrons and hydrangeas, was originally laid out by Gertrude Jekyll. In the same area are the Shamrock gardens and the garden of the late Princess Sturdza. Le Parc William Farcy at Offranville offers a fine display of roses, while the Château de Bosmelet near Auffay has a colourful kitchen garden adjacent to an ancient avenue of lime trees. In the village of Grigneuseville, between Dieppe and Rouen, is Agapanthe, a ‘‘garden of surprises’’ created by the landscape architect Alexandre Thomas. And, if you want to see Claude Monet’s oft painted lily pond, go to Giverny where the painter’s home is a place of pilgrimage for his fans from every continent. In fact, the house and its contents are more interesting than the garden.

A list of Normandy gardens is available from the Dieppe tourist office.

A Monet paintingof his garden

Les Moutiers : an English house and garden

23

YOU want to find a decent restaurant in Dieppe? The advice in these pages is neither definitive nor prescriptive. We mention a number of places that might satisfy your requirements, places we have discovered over the years, but there are others that will have missed our attention and may be deserving of yours.

Restaurant reputations go up and down, with changing owners and chefs. Serving staff treated badly by the boss will be less inclined to behave graciously to the customer. And well treated staff will more likely give service with a smile. When you enter a restaurant, you enter a microcosm of the world, with all its dreams and tensions: see Arnold Wesker’s great play “The Kitchen” to be reminded of it.

Quai Henri IVThe centre of the Dieppe restaurant culture is the Quai

Henri IV, overlooking the marina where, for two centuries until 1994, the ferries deposited their passengers. The quayside is named after Henry of Navarre, who ruled France tolerantly at the end of the sixteenth century and was dubbed ‘‘a wise and thirsty monarch’’ by Socialist historian and gastronome Raymond Postgate (father of Oliver). Henry was baptised with Jurançon wine and garlic, which may have given him a start in culinary appreciation.

The quayside restaurants range from the excellent to the unremarkable: the most garish are not necessarily the best. We have never been disappointed by a meal at the New

Eating out

Le roi Henri IV, a great gourmet

with its animal park, where wallabies and lemurs jump around, and flamingoes congregate on the lake.

But, above all, you must not miss a day in Rouen, one of the great cities of Europe, which has more preserved ‘‘Tudor’’ beamed architecture than even Chester in England. Here, Joan of Arc was cruelly sent to the stake by the occupying English army in 1431, to oblige a gaggle of conspiring French bishops. And here Monet painted the Gothic cathedral. He did so again, and again, and again. The train journey to Rouen from Dieppe takes about 45 minutes. Rouen station facade is an art deco treasure.

Beyond Rouen is Paris. That is an interesting city, too.

24

Haven (F4), which has the favour of a loyal British clientèle. The quality of the Restaurant du Port (G4) is attested to by the prizes affixed to the door of Michel Mouny’s famed establishment. He’s not cheap but he’s special.

The newly opened Heidi (G3), at the corner of the Rue de la Rade, is praised by nearby resident Nick Wellings, an impressive authority on restaurants. Try Heidi’s salads and fondus (cheese dips).

What’s that fish?

FISH dishes abound on the menus of Normandy restaurants, and especially on those of coastal towns such as Dieppe. Here are the names of fish and shellfish you are likely to encounter. No problem with sole or turbot: the French use the same words (with different pronunciations). But don’t expect to see a little salmon on your plate if you have ordered saumonette. You might be surprised by the aroma of un bouquet. And did you know un maquereau (a mackerel) is also a pimp? Best to order mussels during the summer and autumn months, after the daffodil season. Fresh local scallops are available only from October to May.

Amandes . . . . . . . . . . . Type of clamAnchois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AnchovyAnguille . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .EelAraignée de mer . . . Spider crabBar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BassBarbue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BrillBaudroie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MonkfishBigorneaux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WinklesBrème . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BreamBouquet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PrawnBulots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WhelksCabillaud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CodCalamar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SquidCarrelet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PlaiceColin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HakeCongre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conger eelCoques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CocklesCoquilles St Jacques . . ScallopsCrevettes grises . . . . . . . . . ShrimpsCrevettes roses . . . . . . . . . . . PrawnsDaurade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sea-breamEcrevisse . . Freshwater crayfishEglefin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HaddockFlétan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HalibutGambas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . King prawnsGrondin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GurnetHareng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HerringHomard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LobsterHuîtres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OystersJulienne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ling

Langoustes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CrayfishLangoustines . .Norway lobstersLieu jaune. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PollockLieu noir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CoalfishLimande . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lemon soleLingue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LingLompe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LumpfishLotte de mer . . . . . . . . . . . MonkfishLoup de mer . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sea bassMaquereau . . . . . . . . . . . . . MackerelMerlan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WhitingMorue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CodMoules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MusselsOursin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sea urchinPalourdes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ClamsPraires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Small clamsRaie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SkateRouget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red mulletRoussette . . . Huss, rock salmonSaint Pierre . . . . . . . . . . . . John DorySandre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PikeperchSaumon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SalmonSaumonette ..Huss, rock salmonSole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SoleThon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TunaTourteau. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CrabTruite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .TroutTurbot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TurbotVignots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WinklesVive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weever fish

25

Commercial port

Fishing port

QUAI

DE

LA M

ARNE

QUAI

DE

LA M

ARNE

FERRY

COURS DE DAKAR

oo

Tourist Information Office

Caravan park

Ferry Terminal (car and foot passengers)

Railway station

Bus station / Stradibus

Bicycle hire

Police station

Hospital

Post office

Town Hall

Casino

Castle Museum

Estran - Sea museum

Media Library / DSN

Children’s playground

Dieppe ville d’art et d’histoire

The little tourist train

Le Rex cinéma

Puits-salé

Les Tourelles

Memorial of 19 August 42

Spa and swimming pool

complex Les Bains

Public telephone

Public toilets

Taxi park

Bus stop

Cash point

Lifeguard (July-August)

Footpath to clifftop

View point

Free parking

Paid parking

Pedestrianised area

Paid parking zone

26

Commercial port

Fishing port

QUAI

DE

LA M

ARNE

QUAI

DE

LA M

ARNE

FERRY

COURS DE DAKAR

oo

Tourist Information Office

Caravan park

Ferry Terminal (car and foot passengers)

Railway station

Bus station / Stradibus

Bicycle hire

Police station

Hospital

Post office

Town Hall

Casino

Castle Museum

Estran - Sea museum

Media Library / DSN

Children’s playground

Dieppe ville d’art et d’histoire

The little tourist train

Le Rex cinéma

Puits-salé

Les Tourelles

Memorial of 19 August 42

Spa and swimming pool

complex Les Bains

Public telephone

Public toilets

Taxi park

Bus stop

Cash point

Lifeguard (July-August)

Footpath to clifftop

View point

Free parking

Paid parking

Pedestrianised area

Paid parking zone

27

Eating late can be a problem in Dieppe. The bustling Tout Va Bien (E4) at the beginning of the Quai Henri IV, has continuous service and welcomes late diners. Under the new management of English-speaking Stéphane Novik, It has extended its premises to incorporate the Café de la Paix and also extended its menu to an interesting three-course offer, including oysters, at under 16 euros.

Pay a rewarding visit to Le Bordeaux (E4), the newly opened “bar à vin” in the Rue Duquesne close by. Not a restaurant, but welcome tasters (charcuterie and home prepared olives) are served with the excellent Bordeaux wines from the Côtes de Blaye (pronounced “bly”, like “fly”) that

knowledgeable young Gabriel Arduino offers. A bottle shared by two or three people will do you no harm.

Quai Duquesne and Le PolletOn the Quai Duquesne, at right-angles to Henri’s

quayside, is Le Bistrot des Barrières (E5) where the midday menu has a touch of sophistication that appeals to discerning locals. It is just beyond the well established and well reputed Arcades (E4), attached to the hotel of the same name.

Across the Pont Jehan Ango, find le Bistrot du Pollet (F5) in la Rue Tête de Boeuf, a classy venue with classy dishes which has recently introduced an economy lunchtime menu at around 20 euros.

Further up the quayside, towards the station, L’Espérance (E5), at 50 Quai Duquesne, has extended its menu under new young owners Frédéric and Laetitia Foubert to include un plateau de fruits de mer. And Laetitia is proud of her douillon aux pommes (a Normandy dessert).

A welcome awaits you at Le Bistrot des

Barrières.

28

Away from the portWalking up the pedestrianised Grande Rue from the

quaysides, there are interesting tables to be found, notably at Le Grand Duquesne (D5) opposite St Jacques Church, elegantly presided over by the Hobbé family for more than twenty years. There is simpler fare at the welcoming Calvados (D4) at the corner of la Rue des Maillots, where you will find a good plat du jour. And Les Tribunaux (C5) is now a busy eatery at the heart of the town.

At the top end of la Rue de la Barre be rewarded by lunch or dinner at the Sarajevo (B5), owned by Jeannot (a local lad) and Vesna (who adds the authentic Balkan touch). Their meals are fresh and copious (you get both halves of the avocado you order) and the carafe red wine is a genuine Côtes du Rhône.

Hobnob on the terrace there with a diverse company, including the substantial Lulu (who runs the seafront minigolf, dispenses wisdom and occasionally gets a win from his lottery scratch cards); the gentle giant Rocky (he won a basket ball silver medal in the 1968 Olympic Games); and sundry village elders.

Nearby, big changes at the Restaurant de Rouen (A5) at the bottom of la Rue du Faubourg de la Barre, which Pierrot and Marie-Pierre Tourmente ran joyously for two decades. New owners Jérôme and Laetitia, will be opening Chez Letti on the same premises at the end of summer 2011, and we wish them good luck. Retired singing chef Pierrot has left warm memories with his devoted British customers.

Close by, Jean-Henri Dufils now provides a quick snack and witty conversation in a bright setting at Le Palais (A6), at the bottom of l’Avenue Gambetta.

On the seafrontOddly, for a seaside resort, seafront restaurants are

almost non-existent. But the Windsor Hotel (D3) and the Casino (B4) will both feed you in restaurants with panoramic views. The Mercure Hotel (B4) also has a smart restaurant. Le Bas Fort Blanc (A3) at the western end of the front is popular with locals, and the Epsom bar (C4) will serve you a bruschetta up to midnight. In summertime, the beachside Club House (D3) has famous salads and famous sunsets. And nearby, try the inventive lunchtime salad fare that solid Lulu and his pensive partner, Micheline from Madagascar, have to offer at the wind-protected minigolf (C3).

Saucy noteFrench cuisine depends much on the creative blending of sauces in the cooking. Generally, if you see on the menu a dish that has a sauce described as forestière, you can expect mushrooms in it; provençale suggests toma-toes and garlic; normande will have plenty of cream; and dieppoise promises a sauce of cream with prawns and maybe mushrooms.

Hôtel Mercure

29

Gastronomic treatsIf you seek gastronomic treats at gastronomic prices, try

the cosy Bistrot du Pollet (F5), already mentioned; À la Marmite Dieppoise (E5), in la Rue St Jean off the Quai Duquesne, famed for its fish dish of the same name; the recently opened and well appeciated Coup de Torchon (E4) in the Rue Vauquelin; Le Comptoir à Huîtres (below F8) on the Cours de Dakar, a great and elegant place for feasting on oysters, where Stéphane Barq has now extended his menu beyond shellfish; and (most expensively) Les Voiles d’Or (I3), for a hint of Parisian luxury adjacent to the church of Bonsecours, overlooking the port at the top of the eastern cliff.

Ethnic choicesWant to taste something that isn’t French at all? Well,

the Bombay (E4) opposite the lifting bridge serves curries (milder than in England); la Taverne algéroise (E4) in la Rue Duquesne offers couscous; la Bekaa (F5) on le Quai du Carénage in Le Pollet has a typical Lebanese menu; and La Pagode d’Or (D5) in la Rue Pecquet has classic Chinese fare provided by a remarkable musical family. The local chattering classes favour l’Ankara (G3), the Turkish restaurant in la Rue de la Rade.

For fast eaters with small purses, kebabs and pizzerias are springing up all over town.

If you are a veggie No longer are vegetarians in France limited to the offer

of an omelette or a flea their ear. Le Grand Duquesne

From the kitchens of France emerge

many marvels. Lionel (“Yo Yo”)

Huchon conjures up tasty dishes at the Sarajevo

restaurant in Dieppe

30

The Ankara is aTurkish delight

(D5), the elegant restaurant in la Rue St Jacques, introduced an impressive and varied vegetarian menu (at the behest of graphic novelist Glyn Dillon and other British visitors) several years ago; now a number of restaurants have learnt to prepare vegetarian dishes. An honourable mention must be given to the Ankara (G3).

Outside Dieppe Rouen has a plethora of eating places. You will find

better fare around the cathedral than on the busy Place du Marché. Try la Petite Auberge in the Rue Martainville. Snails on the menu.

Le Tréport, 28 kilometres and a 2 euros bus ride to the east of Dieppe, claims a superior culinary reputation to that of Dieppe (although Victor Hugo ate a leather-like steak there). On the quayside, try Le Saint-Louis, Le Homard Bleu or Le Comptoir de l’Océan next door. Great fish dishes. On the little square behind the quayside, is la Pile d’Assiettes, with a Martinique flavour to some of its dishes.

In the royal city of Eu, inland from Le Tréport, eat handsomely at le Maine or more economically at le Restaurant de la Poste.

Other addresses worthy of an out-of-town journey include les Régates at Pourville (great view!); the plush Colombier at Offranville; l’Auberge du Retour de la Forêt, ever busy on the road beyond Arques-la-Bataille towards St Nicolas d’Aliermont; and le Restaurant de la Gare at Envermeu. Brian Woy points out that in 1903, Edwardian satirist Max Beerbohm entertained actress Constance Collier to lunch under the trees at the rustic Auberge du Clos Normand at Saint-Aubin-sur-Scie. She went on to wed another, but lunch there is still worthwhile, reports the discerning Brian Woy.

And, on the edge of Dieppe, we must not omit Les Ouvriers Réunis, a haven for hungry and choosy lorry drivers and canny locals, just up the main road from the ferry terminal (it’s off the first roundabout you come to at the top of the hill). Impressive buffet starters and a pot of wine included with your meal. Book a room for the night if you need to recover.

The list goes on…. It is for you to add to it.

Les Régates on the seafront at Pourville

31

32

A vegetarian recipe from Dieppe

SINCE Patrick Hobbé introduced his vegetarian menu (‘La Découverte végétarienne’) several years ago, the choice of veggie dishes at the family’s restaurant, Le Grand Duquesne, on the Place St-Jacques (D5)has increased. One of the favourites all round the year is this simple concoction with leeks.

INGREDIENTS for one plate (double for two)

METHODHeat the two slices of puff pastry (obtainable from supermarkets) in

the oven for about 20 minutes. Heat the cherry tomatoes in the oven, too. In the meantime, cook the sliced leek and chopped shallots in a frying pan with butter for about 7-8 minutes (until soft). Add a dash of balsamic vinegar during the cooking and stir in the cream at the last moment. Serve with the puff pastry, sandwich-like, below and above the mixture of leek and shallots. Decorate the plate with the heated cherry tomatoes.

Simple, and tasty.On a further visit to le Grand Duquesne, you might try (for example)

Salade de concombre aux noix et au yaourt for a starter, Soufflé de courgettes au parmesan as main course, and Clafoutis pommes et bananes caramélisées for dessert.

Bon appetit!

Two slices of puff pastry, about 10cm square One leek, sliced Some chopped shallots Butter 5cl liquid fresh cream Balsamic vinegar Three or four cherry tomatoes

Night life THE streets of Dieppe may look more deserted than those of Brighton when night falls. But there is a lot going on in many cafes and clubs, to suit all ages and many tastes.

For mature tastes, the Epsom bar (C4) on the seafront stays open until midnight or well after, and sometimes has live music to accompany the cocktails and snacks. You might be lucky and hear Bryan Woy, Erik Schando and the Dilettante Jazz Singers perform; they used to enliven the Europe hotel bar, now defunct (though the hotel still functions).

For young ravers, the hottest spot in town is La Pompe (B4), at 19 Rue St Rémy. Formerly the Brunswick, it opens from 6pm to 7am, with a live concert on Friday night. And, apart from the music, ranging from pop-rock to club music and R&B, you can dance in one of the rooms.

On the more old-fashioned club scene, you could be attracted to Dieppe’s biggest dance floor: L’Abordage (B4) at the Casino or the huge cellars of the Manhattan (E4), in the Rue Duquesne. And the Pirate (G3), at the end of the Quai Henri IV, rocks through the night. The long-established Scottish Pub (C5) in the Rue St Jacques, has rock in the cellar and, if you are a draught Guinness fan, you will find the jet black liquid at the Cambridge Arms (D4) in the Rue de l’Epée, sometimes with music.

A welcoming address is the Solo wine bar (A4), open from 6pm to midnight Tuesday to Saturday, at the sea end of the Rue de Sygogne. Nathalie and Didier offer an eclectic musical choice from CDs, plus snacks and decent carafe wines.

After midnight, Bernard Françoise (who is a Dieppe institution) may admit you to his hidden night bar, la Boussole (E5) at 33 Rue du Bœuf, just off the Quai Duquesne. Leave quietly before daybreak.

Dieppe is no Brighton or San Francisco, but information about the gay scene is on http://www.gaynormandie.com/dieppe/

33

Discothèque at the Abordage

THERE are two sorts of shopping in Dieppe. You can drive out of town and buy goods in bulk at bargain prices at one of the peripheral super stores: up the Avenue Gambetta to Auchan; along the Avenue Normandie-Sussex to Intermarché and Leclerc; and through Neuville and up the Avenue de la République to Lidl. Or you can wander around Dieppe town centre and shop more picturesquely.

Don’t exceed the customs allowance of a “reasonable” amount of alcohol for personal consumption to take home:

Shopping

34

Market day magic

MARKET day is magic day. Every Saturday, from 8am to 1pm, the centre of Dieppe is transformed into a street theatre in which the performers hand over or acquire a rich harvest from Normandy and further flung fields. Smaller street markets, on the place Nationale (D4 and D5), are on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If you want genuine local produce - free range eggs, cheese, poultry, vegetables, salads and fruit – look for the mention ‘‘pays”. Olives and

honey from Provence, cloves of garlic from the Tarn, artichokes and cauliflowers from Brittany, and melons from the Charente are piled on the stalls, too, according to season. And there are fish, saucissons, herbs, loaves of country bread, bottles of cider, and what else?

After the market, some of us repair to the terrace of the Brazza, behind St Rémy Church, to rest our bags, and legs, while drinking a glass or three of the landlady’s wines from Alsace.

If you need market advice and don’t speak French, ask Susan Tailleux from New Hampshire, who sells her eau de vie de cidre (calvados under another name) at her stall in the Rue Saint Jacques (C5).

Chez Olivier

if you do, you will be breaking the law and perhaps the springs of your car, too.

You will find a fine array of cheeses and Nicolas wines at the Maison Olivier (C5) in the Rue St Jacques. Try the crumbly and tangy local Neufchâtel cheese, often in the form of a heart, which is claimed to have been invented in 1035 (making it arguably France’s oldest cheese).

The best fruit and veg shop is Royal Fruits (E4) at the beginning of la Grande Rue ; the queues attest to the quality of its products. La Marée du Jour (D5) is an impressive fish shop on the Place Nationale and there are charcuteries (delicatessens) around town that provide interesting concoctions to take home or on a picnic.

Creamy cakes abound in the patisseries. You can buy great bread from artisan boulanger B. Masson (D4) in the Grande Rue, facing the Place Nationale. Find ginseng Aux Arômes de Provence (D5) and herbs at Épices et Art (D5), both opposite the entrance to St Jacques Church.

Togs, toys and tattoos

There may not be much sense in buying clothes or shoes in Dieppe: they will generally be dearer than in Britain and the so-called fashion boutiques sell largely similar garments (often made by poorly paid workers in Asia) to those you will find on a high street at home.

Plein Ciel (C5) in la Rue St Jacques is a richly stocked toy shop and there is a fascinating children’s bookshop, La Sirène, (D5) hidden behind St Jacques Church nearby. More funful kids’ things and bric-à-brac from Laurent la Brocante (D5) at 6 Rue des Maillots. There’s also a classy bric-à-brac shop (E5), round the corner at 66 Rue d’Écosse.

If you need to stitch something, visit the haberdashery Aurel Création (B5) in the Rue des Bains. And Casa (B5) in the Rue de la Barre has bargains in household goods and kitchenware.

We have not discovered why Dieppe needs so many tattooing establishments: you don’t see many tattoos around, although they are often hidden on parts of the body reserved for the eyes of nearest and dearest only.

La Marée du Jour

Laurent la Brocante

La Sirène

Susan : apple devotee

35

FRENCH hotels are generally cheaper than British hotels. That’s a help to British visitors in a time of reduced exchange value of the pound. It also helps your pocket, and may promote nocturnal acquaintance, if you share a room with another human being.

One of the best appointed hotels in Dieppe is the Europe (G2), at the eastern end of the seafront. At 110 euros a night for a double room in 2011, the price is a bit OTT for a two-star establishment in France. But, at that price, such accommodation would be a gift in a British seaside resort: vast rooms, vast beds and vast baths. And, remarkably, every room has a sea view. Unfortunately, Philippe’s bar is now closed, but Philippe and his cocktails can be found at the Epsom bar at the western end of the promenade.

Dieppe’s long seafront, which boasts the widest lawns of any coastal resort in France, has only six hotels. Reading from the east, they are the Europe; the Aguado (E4), the Europe’s classier three-star sister with double rooms between 89 and 140 euros; the Windsor (D4),

with its panoramic restaurant; the Plage (C4), which has a deservedly faithful British clientele; the posh Grand Hôtel (B4) at the Casino; and the three-star Mercure (B4), smartened up since the chain took over the rather dilapidated Présidence.

Cheaper hotels are inland. In the Rue de la Halle au Blé, parallel to the seafront behind the Epsom bar, you will find the unpretentious Les Galets (new name and new owner for the former Tourist Hotel) (C4) clustered around an old monastery courtyard. No lift.

Where to stay

Two-star lodgings on the

seafront

36

The spick-and-span Etap Hotel (B5) in the Rue Claude Groulard is run with impressive efficiency by the ever welcoming Florence Giffard. All en-suite rooms, served by a lift to every floor: prices vary between 38 and 55 euros

a night, according to season, and to whether you are a single or a double. The Etap offers the best hotel bargain on the Dieppe scene.

Smarter, more spacious (and dearer) accommodation is available at the Hôtel des Arcades (E4), overlooking the marina. The Grand Duquesne (D5), next to the great church of St Jacques, has a dozen rooms above an elegant restaurant, a convenient juxtaposition of facilities at bedtime.

Hotels outside the town centre include the Ibis, at the top of the Avenue Gambetta; Formule 1, just outside town in the Chemin des Vertus at St Aubin; and the lorry drivers’ haven, Les Ouvriers Réunis, which you will find if you follow the sign ‘‘toutes directions’’ on leaving the ferry port. It’s off the first roundabout at the top of the hill. Those United Workers (Ouvriers Réunis) get well fed, too.

Some people prefer the charm of a chambre d’hôte – a French-style homely B and B – to a hotel. For example, the very successful Ghislaine Boré (0 235 821 652) has transformed an ancient convent into cosy rooms for guests in the Rue des Capucines, Le Pollet (6H). Or you might choose the architect-designed Villa Florida (0 235 8 037), impressively overlooking Dieppe golf course on the Pourville road, beyond the western edge of town.

You will find details of most of these places and more on Google, or from the Tourist Office (E4) at the Pont Ango (0 232 144 060 and www.dieppetourisme.com)

Bonne nuit!

The former Hôtel Royal, on the seafront, 1865, A. Aubrun. © fonds ancien et local de Dieppe

Friendly faces at L’Étap, a great budget hotel in the town centre

37

YOU can’t learn a language in five minutes. But you can pick up a few words and phrases in French that may get you what you want and gain you friends as well. These may help:

Words to bridge the gap

Alarm call ............................... Réveil Adapter.......................... Adaptateur Aspirin ................................. Aspirine Battery .......................................... Pile British newspapers................................................... Journaux britanniques Bus ........................................ Autobus Chemist ........................... Pharmacie Chicken.................................... Poulet Child’s menu .......... Menu d’enfant Cold milk ........................... Lait froid Comb ....................................... Peigne Condom .......................... Préservatif Diesel ...................................... Gazole Envelope.......................... Enveloppe Fever ........................................ Fièvre Fish ......................................... Poisson Headache ...................... Mal de tête Hot milk .......................... Lait chaud Matches ......................... Allumettes Meat ........................................ Viande Mobile phone .................... Portable Nappies ............................... Couches Pepper ...................................... Poivre

Petrol..................................... Essence Phone card .... Carte téléphonique Puncture .......................... Crevaison Razor ........................................ Rasoir Razor blades ........ Lames de rasoir Repair ............................. Réparation Reverse charge call .. Appel en PCV Salt ................................................. Sel Sanitary towel .................................... .........................Serviette hygiénique Shaving foam ....... Mousse à raser Soap ......................................... SavonStamp ..................................... Timbre Station ........................................ Gare Stomach ache......... Mal de ventre Sugar ......................................... Sucre Ticket ......................................... Billet Today .............................. Aujourd’hui Toilet paper ...... Papier hygiénique Tomorrow............................. Demain Toothbrush ............. Brosse à dents Toothpaste .............. Pâte dentifrice Vegetarian ..................... Végétarien Yesterday .................................... Hier

I like Dieppe ....................................................................................... J’aime Dieppe I don’t like Dieppe .............................................................. Je n’aime pas Dieppe I don’t understand ............................................................. Je ne comprends pas What time...? .................................................................................. Quelle heure...? When...? ..................................................................................................... Quand...? Where is...? ...................................................................................... Où se trouve...? Which way...? .......................................................................... Quelle direction...? What does it cost, please? .................. Combien cela coûte, s’il vous plaît? The bill, please ............................................................. L’addition, s’il vous plaît Do you accept pounds ................................................ Vous acceptez les livres? Is there a doctor here? ...................................Est-ce qu’il y a un médecin ici?Do you come here often? .......................................... Vous venez souvent ici? I don’t drink ..................................................................................... Je ne bois pas I support Manchester United .... Je suis supporter de Manchester United Do your MPs have trouble with their expenses?.......................................................... Est-ce que vos députés ont des problèmes avec leur notes de frais?I snore in the night ..................................................................... Je ronfle la nuit Let’s meet again ................................................................................. On se revoit Long live friendship! ......................................................................... Vive l’amitié!

Bonne chance ! ........................................................................................ Good luck!

Say a polite “s’il vous plaît”

after any request, and

add “Monsieur” or “Madame”,

as appropriate. Merci

(thank you) is a tricky word:

if you say “Merci” when

offered another helping, the French will

think you mean “No thank you”.

If you want more, say “S’il

vous plaît”.

38

PHONING You won’t find a phone box that takes coins, so buy a phone card (télécarte) at

a post office or a tabac (a café or shop with a red carrot sign - looking more like a cigar – displayed outside). To phone Britain from France, dial 0044 followed by the number you want but omitting the 0 before it. To phone a French number from outside France, begin with 0033. For directory inquiries in France or elsewhere, ring 118 218.

POSTAGE Buy stamps at a post office or a tabac. You need a € 0.58 stamp for a postcard or letter weighing under 20 grammes within France, and a € 0.70 stamp to send to another country within the European Union.

WATCH THE CLOCK France is an hour in advance of Britain, i.e. when it is midday in Britain, it is 1pm in France. Reset your watch when you arrive in France, or you may miss your return ferry.

CLOSING DAY Many shops and restaurants, particularly in smaller towns, are closed on one weekday, most often on Monday. Closing day for museums is generally Tuesday.

BANKS Most are open from about 9am to midday, and then from about 2pm to 5pm, from Tuesday morning to Saturday morning, but they generally don’t change currency now.

BUYING EUROS Cashpoints take most debit and credit cards, and there is a money-changing machine on the ferry. Changing at a cashpoint generally means paying a standard fee for the transaction, so the smaller the transaction, the bigger (proportionally) the fee. You can get a good rate at a main post office, but you may have to queue.

LUNCHTIME It is sacred in France. All offices and most shops close so that the people working in them can go to lunch. You might as well go to lunch as well.

Tips for Travellers

39

ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO You can take home as much as you wish “within reason and for your personal use”. But have a care for your health and pocket. Transmanche Ferries has drinkable wines on sale on the ferry at around £3 a bottle.

TRAVEL CHEAPER When buying local bus tickets, or Metro tickets in Paris, you will get a reduction by buying a carnet of 10 tickets. For trains, check whether there is a reduction for two people travelling together, and how (if you are over 60) you can qualify for a pensioners’ reduction.

NO SMOKING France has since 2008 a no-smoking rule in cafés and restaurants. Lungs benefit, but some addicts find deprivation of the weed hard to accept. Rarely, you will find

an establishment that has invested in a sealed-off smoking chamber, but generally if you want to puff, you must do it on the terrace: make sure the wind is not blowing your toxic fumes into the nostrils and eyes of the innocents at the next table.

WATCH YOUR SPEED (AND YOUR INTAKE) The French government is trying to reduce traffic accidents: until recently, road fatalities were running at about double the rate recorded in Britain. Radars and watchful gendarmes are out to catch those who break the speed limit: a 50 kilometre limit in built-up areas is the equivalent of 32mph. The gendarmes are also on the hunt for drunk drivers, who are still dangerously plentiful.

DEARER ON THE TERRACE How delightful to sit on a café terrace for your refreshment! But don’t be upset

if it costs a little more than if you sit inside (it may be cheapest if you stand or sit at the bar).

“UN CAFÉ S’IL VOUS PLAÎT” If that’s what you ask for, you can expect to be served a black coffee. To be sure

of a white coffee, order “un café crème, s’il vous plaît”. Or simply, “un crème, s’il vous plaît”. If you ask for “un thé”, it won’t be served with milk unless you add “avec du lait”. And the milk will probably be hot, unless you specify “du lait froid”.

40

“SERRÉ” OR “ALLONGÉ”? You ask for “un café serré”, or simply “un serré” if you want a concentrated Italian-style

black coffee, and “un café allongé” for a bigger quantity of less strength.

TIPPING France, where usherettes in cinemas and attendants at petrol stations once expected to be tipped, is a less tipping country these days. In a restaurant, check your bill to see if it indicates “service compris”. If you are served by the owner or a family member, a tip is not expected.

MEDICAL CARE You should obtain an E111 card, available on application at a post office, before you embark on travel in the European Union. It gives you a certificate of entitlement to benefits in kind during a stay in an EU member state. It’s free.

EMERGENCIES In case of accident or sudden illness, ring 15 or 18. The fire brigade may answer the call and attend to the patient. The pompiers (fire fighters) have paramedical skills. Don’t worry: the pompiers (fire fighters) know their job.

Emergency care - but the doctor might not be George Clooney

41

CHAMBRES D’HÔTESBali Dieppe 2 chemin de la Falaise ................................. 02 35 84 16 84Boré Ghislaine Villa des Capucins 11, rue Capucins. Le Pollet ................................. 02 35 82 16 52Lagnel Monique et Étienne 40, Bd du Gal De Gaulle. Centre ................................. 02 32 90 99 62Noël Danièle Villa Florida 24, chemin du Golf. Janval ................................. 02 35 84 40 37Roulin-Gezic Marika, Le Manoir 32, rue du Gal De Gaulle, Neuville ................................. 02 35 83 99 53

HOTELS WITH RESTAURANTArcades**(Les) 1-3, Arcades de la Bourse ................................. 02 35 84 14 12Campanile RN 27, St-Aubin s/Scie ................................. 02 35 84 64 13Crocus Hôtel Dieppe Falaise rue de la Providence, St Aubin .................................... 02 32 14 50 50Grand Duquesne* (Au) 15, place Saint Jacques .................................... 02 32 14 61 10Grand Hôtel (Le)*** Casino 3, bd de Verdun .... 02 32 14 48 00

Ibis** Val Druel Rue de la Vieille grange ................................. 02 35 82 65 30Kyriad* Route de Rouen, St Aubin s/Scie ................................. 02 35 84 31 82Mercure Dieppe La Présidence*** 1, bd de Verdun .................................. 02 35 84 31 31Côte d’Albâtre (le) Neuville Rue L. Blériot ZA Eurochannel .................................. 02 35 82 14 07Windsor** 18, bd de Verdun .... 02 35 84 15 23

HOTELS WITHOUTRESTAURANTAguado*** 30, bd de Verdun ... 02 35 84 27 00B&B Dieppe Rue de la Providence, St Aubin ................................... 0 892 78 80 36Etap Hôtel 6, rue Claude Groulard .....................................0 892 68 31 35Europe** (Hôtel de l’) 63, bd de Verdun .... 02 32 90 19 19Formule 1 Chemin des Vertus, St Aubin .................................... 0891 70 52 31Plage** (Hôtel de la) 20, bd de Verdun .... 02 35 84 18 28Tourist Hôtel* 16, rue de la Halle au Blé ...................................02 35 06 10 10

BRASSERIES Brasseries normally serve through the day and you can have either a refreshment or a meal at any time

Balto (Le) 2, quai Duquesne ................................. 02 35 84 21 72Bar des Bains (Le) 7, rue des Bains ................................. 02 35 84 18 26Cactus (Le) 71, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 82 59 38Café du Parc 12, av. Pasteur ................................. 02 35 84 14 90 Calvados (Le) 17, 19 rue Lemoyne .................................. 02 35 84 20 11Cambuse (La) 42, rue J.-A. Belle Teste ...................... 02 35 84 19 46Catamaran (Le) Centre Commercial Belvédère ............. 02 35 84 73 40Divernet 138, Grande Rue ................................. 02 35 84 13 87Zou 2 bis, rue de l’Oranger .. 02 32 90 96 08Epsom 11, bd de Verdun ................................. 02 35 84 12 27

42

Jehan Ango (Le) 20, quai du carénage .............. 02 35 84 14 18Régent (Le) 160, Grande Rue ................................. 02 35 84 75 49Tout va bien 3, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 84 12 67Tribunaux (les) 1, place du Puits Salé ......................... 02 32 14 44 65

CREPERIESnnexe (L’) 17, rue de Clieu ................................. 02 32 90 98 28Mouette à vélo (La) 109 bis, quai Henri IV ................ 02 35 84 20 63Ty Breiz 59, quai Henri IV ...................................02 35 82 86 56Voûte des Korrigans (La) 27, rue des Cordiers ................ 02 35 40 13 44

KEBABSAnatolie 97, rue de la Barre ................................. 02 35 84 44 47Antalya 65, Grande Rue ...................................02 35 82 79 61Efes Kebab 6, bis rue Victor Hugo .................................. 02 35 84 20 07Good Time (Le) 20, rue de Clieu ...................................02 35 84 94 38Istanbul 23, rue des bains ...................................02 32 90 91 64

Le Havana 15, rue du Mortier d’or ...................................02 35 84 13 86Star Kebab 3, Grande rue du Pollet ...................................02 32 90 08 47

PIZZERIASBocca (La) 101, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 84 49 02Chez Sam 12-14 rue de l’Oranger................................. 02 35 40 32 99Cyrano (Le) 11, rue Vauquelin ................................. 02 35 06 22 85Lavantoura Grande rue du Pollet ................................. 02 35 84 64 05L’Îlot pirate ZAC du Val Druel ................................. 02 35 82 67 45Little Italy 44, quai Duquesne ................................. 02 35 04 56 82Livado 11, rue du Cdt Fayolle ................................. 02 32 14 05 14Pizz (La) Neuville 147, av de la république ........... 02 35 83 95 73Pizzeria chez Sam 48 av. J. Jaurès ................................. 02 35 40 36 98 Pizza’ Pero 121, rue de la Barre ................................. 02 35 84 65 01Pizza Presto (à emporter) Neuville ................ 06 07 65 74 88 Janval ..................... 06 07 65 74 87Pizza sprint 14, quai Duquesne ................................. 02 35 82 02 02Promenade (La) 95, quai Henri IV ...................................02 35 84 58 50Trattoria (La) (à emporter)30, rue St-Jacques ..02 35 82 77 78Villa Candy 34, rue Saint Rémy ................................. 02 32 90 05 28

ROUTIERSAvenir (L’) 10, cours de Dakar ................................. 02 35 84 18 10Chaloupe (La) 18, cours de Dakar ................................. 02 35 40 47 78Ouvriers réunis (Aux) rue L. Blériot ZA Eurochannel.....02 35 82 14 07

43

SELF-SERVICERESTAURANTSAu 100’dwichs- la frite dorée 9, place Nationale .. 06 73 31 93 56Aux bons plats 85, rue de la Barre ................................. 02 35 04 39 89Bérigny (Le) 1, bd Clémenceau ................................. 02 35 84 85 83Flunch Centre Cial Belvédère................................. 02 35 84 75 65Fritel Grill 46, av. Jean-Jaurès .................................. 02 32 90 11 67Harry’s Cafet 1, av Jean Jaurès ................................. 02 35 84 69 51McDonald’s Centre Cial Belvédère ................................. 02 32 90 92 56Mômerie (La) 42, rue d’Ecosse ................................. 02 35 82 86 16Pasta Mi Su 20, rue de la Boucherie ................................. 02 35 06 23 22Quick Centre Cial Belvédère ................................. 02 35 84 83 50

RESTAURANTSAncrage (L’) 9, arcades de la Poissonnerie ........ 02 35 84 21 45Ankara (L’) spécialités Turques 18-20, rue de la Rade 02 35 84 58 33Arcades (Les) 1-3, arcades de la Bourse .................. 02 35 84 14 12Armorique (L’) 17, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 84 28 14Au Goût du Jour 16, rue Duquesne ................................. 02 35 84 27 18Bas fort blanc (Le) 10, rue Alexandre Dumas .................. 02 35 06 01 36Bar de Rouen 3, rue du Faubourg de la Barre ................ 02 35 84 73 50

Bekaa (La) 10, quai du Carénage ................................. 02 35 86 51 99Bellevue (Le) 70, bd de Verdun ................................. 02 35 84 39 37Bistrot des Barrières 5-7, arcades de la Poissonnerie 02 35 40 46 83Bistrot du Pollet 23, rue Tête de Bœuf ........................ 02 35 84 68 57Bistrot du quai “Chez l’gros” 35, quai Henri IV ................. 02 35 82 28 03Bombay (Le) 15, arcades de la Poissonnerie ........ 02 35 84 25 54Buffalo Grill Centre Cial Belvédère ................................. 02 35 84 67 00Café solo 19, rue de Sygogne ............................... 02 35 86 43 46Café suisse 19, arcades de la Bourse .................. 02 35 84 10 69Comptoir à huîtres (Le) 12, Cours de Dakar .................... 02 35 84 19 37Cotriade (La) 2, arcades du Casino................................. 02 35 84 02 15Ecume (L’) 35, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 32 90 98 13El Amigo’s Tex Mex 1, arcades de la Poissonnerie ........ 02 35 84 17 54Equateur (L’) 79, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 82 02 64Espérance (L’) 50, quai Duquesne ................................. 02 35 06 19 34Epave (L’) 11, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 40 24 29Fourche (La) Neuville 7, route d’Envermeu .......... 02 35 84 15 10Galion (Le) 83, quai Henri IV .................................. 02 35 82 71 87Galères (Les) 34 rue du Bœuf................................. 02 35 06 26 54Grand Duquesne (Au) 15, place Saint Jacques ................. 02 32 14 61 10Heidi 1, quai du Hâble ................................. 02 35 06 23 16Hippolyte (L’) 85-89 quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 84 59 81Horizon (L’) Casino 3, bd de Verdun ................................. 02 32 14 48 00Impulsion (L’) 8 quai Duquesne ................................. 02 35 82 46 44King (Le) 30, rue d’Ecosse ................................. 02 32 90 05 35Louisiane (La) 9, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 82 20 96

44

Lumière de Chine Centre Cial Belvé-dère ....................... 02 35 84 04 74Marine (La) 117, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 84 89 10Marmite dieppoise (la) 8, rue St Jean................................. 02 35 84 24 26Méli-Mélo 55, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 06 15 12Musardière (La) 61, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 82 94 14Newhaven 53, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 84 89 72Océan (L’) 23 bis, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 32 90 97 80Pagode d’or (La) 6 bis, rue Pecquet ................................. 02 35 84 13 97Présidence (La) 1, bd de Verdun .................................. 02 35 84 31 31Promenade (La) 95, quai Henri IV ................................. 02 35 84 58 50Restaurant du golf route de Pourville ................................. 02 32 90 19 24Restaurant du port 99, quai Henri IV................................. 02 35 84 36 64Roi de la patate (Le) 15, rue Valentin Feldmann ............. 02 35 83 90 81Royal wok Centre Cial Belvédère................................. 02 35 84 79 51Sarajevo (Le) 52, rue de la Barre................................. 02 35 84 17 31Sully (Le) 97, quai Henri IV................................. 02 35 84 23 13Taverne algéroise (La) 10-12 rue Duquesne ............. 02 35 40 47 53Tourelles (Les) 43, rue du Cdt Fayolle................................. 02 35 84 15 88Valençay (Le) 19, quai du Hâble .................................. 02 35 82 49 71Victoire II (La) 2, Grande rue du Pollet ..................... 02 35 84 15 92Voiles d’Or (Les) Neuville - chapelle de Bonsecours ..... 02 35 84 16 84Windsor 18, bd de Verdun ................................. 02 35 84 15 23

SEAFRONTRESTAURANTSClub House ............ 02 35 84 59 22Croq’Club .............. 02 35 84 70 95Saladerie du minigolf 02 35 84 22 51

BOWLINGDieppe Bowling Centre Cial Belvédère ............. 02 32 14 00 208 pistes, 10 billards, bar, snack, cocktails

CINEMASRex, place Nationale 0 892 686 902DSN Centre Jean Renoir quai Bérigny ................................. 02 35 82 04 43

NIGHT BARSAlexander (L’) 12, rue de la Rade................................. 02 35 83 39 40Bo Bar (Le) rue de la Boucherie................................. 02 35 86 27 45Boussole (La) 33, rue du Bœuf ................................. 02 35 04 97 04Cactus café (Le) 71 quai Henri IV................................. 02 35 82 59 38Café solo 19, rue de Sygogne ............................... 02 35 86 43 46 Cambridge (Le) 2, rue de l’Épée................................. 02 35 82 57 30Entracte (L’) 39, rue du Comman-dant Fayolle ............. 02 35 84 26 45Jackpot bar (Le) Casino - 3 bd de Verdun ................... 02 35 06 04 00 Manhattan (Le) 6, rue DuquesnePirate (Le) 91 quai Henri IV................................. 02 35 82 32 59Pompe (La) 19, rue Saint-Rémy.......................................02 35 … … …Quai des Brumes (Le) 9, rue de la Charpenterie ......... 06 12 43 31 61Scottish pub (Le) 12-14, rue Saint-Jacques ................. 02 35 84 13 16

PIANO BAREpsom Cocktails, restauration11, bd de Verdun ...02 35 84 12 27

DISCOTHEQUEAbordage (L’) Casino - 3, bd de Verdun .................. 02 32 14 48 00

45

What’s onTHERE is something going on in Dieppe all round the year: concerts in the churches and open-air gigs on the seafront; street festivals and flea markets; exhibitions and guided tours (even nocturnal ones) of the town’s histori-cal sites. Dieppe is famed for its biennial international kite festival: the next one is due in September 2012.

Here are some of the events planned for 2011. For more details, contact the Tourist Office at the Pont Ango (by the lifting bridge in the town centre) or visit these useful sites: www.dieppe.fr, officetour.dieppe@wanadoo.fr and dieppearthistoire@mairie-dieppe.fr

7 and 8 MayBric-à-brac street market on Le Pollet island

8 MayFlower festival in town centre

14 MayNight time opening of Château Musée. Entry free. 8pm

15 MayChopin recital, School of Music, 4pm

Welcoming faces at the Tourist Office

46

Dieppe race days in 2011

DIEPPE racecourse at Rouxmesnil, south of the town, has a summer programme of meetings that include flat events, races over the jumps and – a French speciality - trotting races. The picturesque circular course has good refreshment facilities. Dates of meetings in 2011 are:Sunday 5 June (jumps), Monday 27 June (flat and jumps), Monday 18 July (jumps), Wednesday 20 July (flat), Wednesday 27 July (flat), Sunday 31 July (trot), Sunday 7 August (trot), Monday 8 August (trot and children’s day), Monday 15 August (trot), Monday 22 August (trot), Tuesday 20 September (jumps).

20 MayKarpatt. Rock and salsa and jazz and gypsy music. Street concert 8pm. Town centre

24 MayMuch Ado About Nothing. 8pm. Shakespeare in the street. Puits-Salé, Town centre

28 MayCarnival celebrating the commercial port. Starting from town centre at 3pm

10 to 12 JuneRugby tournament for teams of veterans. Seafront lawns

11 JuneGreen Galets. Volley ball tournament. Seafront lawns

12 JuneDieppe gourmande. Introduction (with tasters) to Dieppe’s culinary traditions. Guided tour. 10.30am (book at Tourist Office)

18 and 19 June Festival of majorettes. Town centre

19 JuneChopin recital. School of Music. 4pm 21 JuneNational Festival of Music. Music and bands all over town

25 and 26 JuneFestival of the fishing port

26 JuneDieppe in the time of the Impressionists. Guided tour. Booking at Tourist Office

1 to 3 JulyStaging post of Tour de France à la Voile yacht race. Quai Henri IV

28 maiCarnaval / 16h-18h départ parc mitterrand Fête du CommerCe / 18h-23h quai Guynemer

CommerCe / 28 mai / 19h-23h

pêChe / 25 juin / 19h-23hFête de la mer / 26 juin / 10h-16hhalle à marée / quai du Carénage

47

What’s on…

July and AugustLire à la Plage. Lending library on the beach, near children’s playground

14 JulyNational holiday. Fireworks display and seafront performances

23 JulyFestival to celebrate the Transmanche ferry link. Eats, drinks and music from across the Channel. Seafront next to port. From 4pm until after midnight

5 to 21 AugustFairground on seafront lawns

19 AugustCommemoration of Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942

23 to 28 AugustArrival of Solitaire du Figaro single-handed yacht race. Quai Henri IV.

2 and 3 SeptemberDieppe Retro: vintage cars in town

Fête du transmanChe

et de la plaisanCe

front de mer (côté avant-port)

23 juillet / 16h-23h

48

17 and 18 SeptemberNational heritage day. Free entry to museums

30 September to 2 OctoberFestival of strip cartoons (“bandes dessinées”). Cultural centre and Sea Centre

October to January 2012Georges Braque exhibition at Castle Museum

12 and 13 NovemberHerring and Scallop Festival. Quai Henri IV

4 DecemberChristmas fair. Salle Paul Eluard

See “agenda interactif” on www.dieppe.fr updates and fuller details of events

© Nicolas Stérin

49

The French are funny… and so are the British

THEY call us ‘‘Rosbifs’’ and we call them ‘‘Froggies’’. A misplaced nomer in both cases. As the perceptive Robin Cook pointed out, the national dish of England is, rather, chicken tikka masala, while you will go a long way today to find frogs’ legs on a French menu.

The cuisine of each country is indeed different, although today culinary tastes of all lands coalesce around the same imperialist hamburgers and those ubiquitous chips (which the Americans don’t like to call French fries).

It is in the nature of national prejudices to rely on imagined evidence from previous generations. So please take with a pinch of best sea salt, what we write here about the funny French. But we must agree that there are oddities (from a traditional British point of view) in the behaviour and thought processes of our nearest neighbours, who have been our oldest enemies and our oldest friends.

It is odd that the French should choose to shut their shops, even their banks, so that everybody can go off to lunch at the same time. The French just love lunch.

It is odd - yet very convenient to parents - that they don’t bat an eyelid to the presence of little children in their cafés (the French version of our pubs).

It is odd that they are constantly shaking each other’s hands and pecking each other on the cheek (with even men indulging in warm embraces between each other).

It is odd that they address each other as ‘‘vous’’ or ‘‘tu’’, whereas we have only ‘‘you’’ to use.

It is odd that the French rarely travel north to the British Isles, which they imagine as a benighted fog-enveloped country where the food is uneatable and the people talk only in an intolerable and incomprehensible Shakespearean tongue.

And it is odd that they are all so scared of draughts (‘Il y a un courant d’air – fermez la fenêtre, s’il vous plaît!’).

But the Brits have their oddities, too: they dress funnily; they learn to drive on what most of the world considers the wrong side of the road; they have no trains on Christmas Day; they drink warm beer; and they think everyone should understand their language, however they care to pronounce it.

As we all have to share and solve the problems of an increasingly vulnerable world, should we not confine our contemplation of oddities to the domain of folklore, and get on together with saving our planet from self-destruction?

Peter Avis

© D.R

.

50

Useful numbers

Affaires Maritimes : leisure boating at sea ......... 02 35 06 96 72

Ambulances (Emergencies SMUR) ....... 02 32 14 75 75 or 15 50

British Consul (Paris) ................................................. (0)144 513 102

Cinéma Rex ..................................................................... 0892 686 902

Cinéma Jean Renoir .................................................. 02 35 82 04 43

Dieppe Ville d’Art et d’Histoire ............................... 02 35 40 18 57

Gendarmerie (outside Dieppe) ................................. 02 35 82 04 35

Hôpital (Hospital) ....................................................... 02 32 14 76 76

Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall) ........................................ 02 35 06 60 00

Météo marine (Shipping forecast) ........................ 02 32 68 08 76

Météo régionale (Local weather) .......................... 02 92 68 02 76

Municipal police (lost proprety) ............................ 02 35 06 61 95

Pharmacies (chemist shops), after 10pm ............ 02 32 14 49 00

Police (within Dieppe) ............................................... 02 32 14 49 00

Police Secours (Emergencies) ..................... 17 or 02 32 14 49 00

Pompiers (Fire brigade) ................................. 18 or 02 32 90 59 15

Poste (Postal services) ............................................... 02 35 06 99 20

Secours Maritimes (Sea Rescue Service) ............. 03 21 87 21 87

Sémaphore (Coastguard) ......................................... 02 35 84 23 82

SNCF (Main railway station) ................................... 02 35 06 69 33

SNCF (Rail information) .............................................................. 36 35

SNSM (Lifeboat) ......................................................... 02 35 84 16 07

Sous-Préfecture (District government office) .... 02 35 06 30 00

SPA (Society for the Protection of Animals) ...... 02 35 84 26 17

Taxis ............................................................................... 02 35 84 20 05

Tourist Office ............................................................... 02 32 14 40 60

Transmanche Ferries (from UK) ............................. 08 009 171 201

(from France) ....................... 0 800 650 100

51

A taste of Dieppe

THE title says what it means. ‘‘A taste of Dieppe’’ is offered to visitors

as an informal introduction to a special Normandy town, its hinterland and its people. It is less an official guide than a personal reflection. We hope readers will be encouraged by this ‘‘taste’’ to embark on their own discovery of a fascinating corner of France.

Peter Avis

Comments on this publication will be welcome at TASTE, Service Communication, Ville de Dieppe, 24, Rue des Maillots, 76 200 Dieppe.scom.dieppe@mairie-dieppe.fr