This is the Rue du Casino (Casino Street) in Deauville on the Normandy Coast in France. This row of half-timbered houses lines up on the backside of the Casino Barrière de Deauville, one of the largest in France. The Seaside Resort Deauville transformed from a small farming village when Charles de Morny, half brother of Napoleon III., developed the city in the mid 19th century. With its close proximity to Paris, good railway connections, a harbour, horse racing courses, villas and marinas Deauville quickly became the most fashionable city in the area and the „Queen of the Norman Beaches“. While Deauville has barely 4.000 inhabitants, about 10 times that number of people are around in touristic seasons. Fitting the high class flair of the city fashion shopping has always been around in Deauville and it was here, where Coco Chanel opened her first “Chanel Modes” Store in 1913, the start of her fashion label Chanel.

Here in Rue du Casino we still find mainly fashion labels, at the time this image was taken these are Hermès, Ralph Lauren, Manoush, IRO, Polo de Deauville, Carine, Adam today, Aberdeen and Hugo Boss. The flamboyant architecture of half-timbered houses to be found in Deauville, but also in other places along the coast, is not as historic as it might seem as none of these buildings was built before the 1850s. In a neo norman style they reflect and emphasize the nostalgic nature of a charming seaside resort.

This cityscape panorama of Deauville in France was presented in week 11 of our 101 weeks 101 cities of europe project.