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Arromanches-les-Bains
Commune
Arromanches, with the remains of the Mulberry harbour in its bay
Coat of arms
Location of Arromanches-les-Bains
Arromanches-les-Bains Show map of France Arromanches-les-Bains Show map of Normandy
Coordinates: 49°20′24″N 0°37′16″W / 49.34°N 0.6211°W / 49.34; -0.6211Coordinates: 49°20′24″N 0°37′16″W / 49.34°N 0.6211°W / 49.34; -0.6211
Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Calvados
Arrondissement	Bayeux
Canton	Courseulles-sur-Mer
Intercommunality	CC Bayeux Intercom
Government
• Mayor .mw-parser-output .nobold{font-weight:normal} (2014-2020)	Patrick Jardin
Area 1	13.7 km2 (5.3 sq mi)
Population (2015)2	517
• Density	38/km2 (98/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	14021 /14117
Elevation	0–55 m (0–180 ft) (avg. 15 m or 49 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Arromanches-les-Bains (or, simply Arromanches) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandie region of northwestern France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Arromanchais or Arromanchaises^[1]

The commune has been awarded two flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.^[2]

Geography

Arromanches-les-Bains is located some 12 km northeast of Bayeux and 10 km west of Courseulles-sur-Mer on the coast in the heart of the area where the Normandy landings took place on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Access to the commune is by the D514 road from Tracy-sur-Mer in the west passing through the town and continuing to Saint-Côme-de-Fresné in the east. The D87 road also goes from the town south to Ryes. The D65 road goes east to Meuvaines. About a third of the commune is the urban area of the town with the rest farmland.^[3]

History

Arromanches is remembered as a historic place of the Normandy landings and in particular as the place where a Mulberry harbour artificial port was installed. This artificial port allowed the disembarkation of 9,000 tons of material per day.

It was on the beach of Arromanches that, during the Invasion of Normandy immediately after D-Day, the Allies established an artificial temporary harbour to allow the unloading of heavy equipment without waiting for the conquest of deep water ports such as Le Havre or Cherbourg. Although at the centre of the Gold Beach landing zone, Arromanches was spared the brunt of the fighting on D-Day so the installation and operation of the port could proceed as quickly as possible without damaging the beach and destroying surrounding lines of communication. The port was commissioned on 14 June 1944.

This location was one of two sites chosen to establish the necessary port facilities to unload quantities of supplies and troops needed for the invasion during June 1944, the other was built further West at Omaha Beach. The British built huge floating concrete caissons which, after being towed from England, then had to be assembled to form walls and piers forming and defining the artificial port called the Mulberry harbour. These comprised pontoons linked to the land by floating roadways. One of these ports was assembled at Arromanches and even today sections of the Mulberry harbour still remain with huge concrete blocks sitting on the sand and more can be seen further out at sea.

Some key figures: by 12 June 1944 more than 300,000 men, 54,000 vehicles, 104,000 tons of supplies had been landed. During 100 days of operation of the port 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of material were landed. The best performance of the port was in the last week of July 1944: during those seven days the traffic through Arromanches exceeded 136,000 tons or 20,000 tons per day.

Today, Arromanches is mainly a tourist town. Situated in a good location for visiting all of the battle sites and war cemeteries, there is also a museum at Arromanches with information about Operation Overlord and in particular, the Mulberry harbours.^[4]

On 21 September 2013 Bradford-based sand sculpting company Sand in Your Eye created a tribute called "The Fallen 9,000". It was a temporary sculpture project—a visual representation of 9,000 people drawn in the sand which equates the number of civilians, German forces and Allies that died during the D-day landings. It coincided with Peace Day, and was washed away with the tide at the end of the day.^[5]

Heraldry

Blazon: Azure, an anchor of Or debruised by a mullet of Argent between two chains of Sable posed in chevron inverted broken, in chief Gules debruised by a leopard of Or armed and tongued Azure.

Administration

Town hall.

List of Successive Mayors^[6]

(Not all data is known)

Demography

In 2010 the commune had 587 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known from the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger towns that have a sample survey every year.^{[Note 1]}

Sources : Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 (population without double counting and municipal population from 2006)

Population of Arromanches-les-Bains

Culture and heritage

Civil heritage

The commune has many buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments:

• 
  Houses (19th century)^[7]
  


• The Notre-Dame-des-Flots Monument at Rue du Calvaire (1911)^[8]
  


• The Grand Hotel at 22 Rue du Maréchal Joffre (20th century)^[9]
  


• The old Radar Station at Le Callouet (20th century)^[10]
  


• The Château du Petit Fontaine (1764)^[11]
  


• An Orientation table (20th century)^[12]
  


• The Artificial Harbour and Winston Churchill Harbour (20th century)^[13]
  


• The 6 June 1944 Museum (1954)^[14]
  


• A Lavoir (Public laundry) (1896)^[15]
  


• The Town Hall and Boys' Primary School (1884)^[16]
  


• The Village (Antiquity)^[17]
  


• 
  Houses and Hotels (18th-20th century)^[18]
  

Other sites of interest

• The Museum of the Landings
  


• Arromanches 360 degrees

Religious heritage

The commune has several religious buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments:

A Presbytery at 4 avenue de l'Amiral Mountbatten (1836)^[19]

A Monumental Cross at Rue du Calvaire (1901)^[20]

A Cemetery (1857)^[21]

The Parish Church of Saint Peter (19th century)^[22] The Church contains many items that are registered as historical objects:

Picture Gallery

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  Remains of the Mulberry harbour on the beach
  

  
  

  
  


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  Arromanches railway station around 1901
  

  
  

  
  


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  View of the beach
  

  
  

  
  


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  Arromanches town
  

  
  

  
  


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  The cliffs along the coast
  

  
  

  
  


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  Remains of German defences and the Mulberries in the background
  

  
  

  
  


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  The Lavoir (public laundry)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Arromanches memorial
  

  
  

  
  


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  The Museum of the Landings
  

  
  

  
  


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  Gold Beach
  

  
  

  
  


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  Mulberry harbour in operation (1944)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Commemorative plaque
  

  
  

  
  


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  Arromanches from Cape Manvieux
  

  
  

  
  


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  A "whale pier" bridge element from the Mulberry harbour on display since 2004
  

  
  

  
  


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  The Mulberry harbour in June 1944
  

  
  

  
  


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  Winston Churchill at Arromanches 21–23 July 1944
  

  
  

  
  


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  Aerial view of the Mulberry harbour in September 1944
  

  
  

  
  


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  Sherman tank displayed at Arromanches
  

  
  

  
  


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  Arromanches Church
  

  
  

  
  


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  Church of Saint Peter
  

  
  

  
  


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  Sunset at Arromanches
  

  
  

  
  

Notable people linked to the commune

• 
  Jules Carpentier, French inventor. A main street is named in his honour.


• 
  François Carpentier, son of Jules Carpentier, French architect and mayor of the commune. He created the Museum of the Landings in Arromanche.


• 
  Sylvie Joly owned a villa in the commune. Her father was mayor of the commune from 1947 to 1963.


• The Boisgelin family owned a large part of the commune and still have a large house.

See also

• Communes of the Calvados department


• Mulberry harbour


• Arromanches (French aircraft carrier)

Panorama

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arromanches-les-Bains.

• Arromanches Tourist office website


• 
  Satellite view of Arromanches on GoogleMaps: remains of the Mulberry harbour are still visible.


• 
  Photos and information on the Musée du Débarquement at Arromanches (in French)
  


• 
  The Battle of Arromanches of 1811 on the History of Normandy website. (in French)
  


• Arromanches-les-Bains on Lion1906


• 
  Aromanches on the 1750 Cassini Map


• 
  Arromanches-les-Bains on the INSEE website (in French)
  


• 
  INSEE (in French)