Deauville is a commune of the Calvados departement, in the Basse-Normandie région, in France. With its racecourse, harbour, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino and sumptuous hotels, Deauville is regarded as the queen of the Norman beaches.
The first reference to Deauville is in 1060. At this time the village was called A Enilla and was more of a fishing hamlet than a village.
Deauville hardly suffered during the First World War. It was during World War II with the German Occupation that Deauville saw most of its leisure proprieties confiscated for use by the occupying force.
During the 1960s, Deauville started to accept less fortunate visitors. It still is now a haven for the rich and famous as well as holiday makers.
Home to the Deauville-La Touques Racecourse, the countryside around Deauville is the main horse breeding region in France and home to numerous stud farms. As a result, the city is twinned with Lexington, Kentucky, the most important locale for American horse breeding. The important Ventes de Deauville yearling auction is held in mid-August each year at Deauville.
Deauville was the setting for part of A Man and a Woman. The screen adaption of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Links" was set in Deauville.
Deauville was the location inspiration for the fictional casino in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.
The first of the James Bond series largely takes part in a Casino - Fleming had played at Deauville as a young man, and sets his tale of Bond versus Soviet agents in a fictional French gambling resort, drawing parallels with an actual WW2 visit he had made to a Portuguese casino whilst working for the British secret service.
F. Scott Fitzgerald mentions Deauville in "The Great Gatsby" as a place Tom Buchanan and Daisy visit on their honeymoon.
A common old joke among locals is that the wealthy bourgeoisie Frenchmen would keep their wife in Deauville and their mistress in Trouville, making light of the disparate socioeconomic statuses of the two neighboring seaside villages, Trouville being a working class fishing village and Deauville being home to exclusive shops and expensive real estate.
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