Feel Trouville-sur-Mer with our top 5 sensory experiences…
See a show at the town’s glitzy casino
Hear summertime jazz and blues concerts on the beach as part of Sur un Air de Trouville in July and August
Smell salty seawater during a relaxing thalassotherapy treatment
Taste scallops, sole, prawns and mackerel at Sébastien Saiter’s stand at the historic old fish market
Touch luxury fabrics in Trouville’s fashionable boutiques.
Artists and writers have long fallen for Trouville, Deauville’s older sibling. It’s equally as glamorous with its villas, splendid sands and boardwalk, but it also has a vibrant fishing port. It’s been immortalised in canvases by Monet, who painted memorable scenes of 19th-century bourgeois society promenading along Trouville’s beachfront; in fact, Trouville was one of the first coastal resorts to be developed in France.
By Napoleon’s time, the rich and fashionable flocked here too, commissioning grand villas and palaces of entertainment such as the glitzy casino. The fishing port is accompanied by a covered fish market and surrounded by a plethora of seafood restaurants selling scallops, sole, prawns and mackerel dishes. Don’t miss the Wednesday and Sunday markets as well as a good browse of the typical seaside shops. Also, wander up the slope into the winding lanes to enjoy the calmer side of Trouville and characterful 19th-century architecture.
Culture vultures can find their fill in the galleries around town, while Trouville’s beach – declared ‘Queen of Beaches’ in the past – and is greatly appreciated by both bathers and walkers. Famous French writer Marguerite Duras became a devotee of Trouville, spending her summers here; she said that everyone she’d ever met who had experienced the resort for the first time said they dreamed of returning.