^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Cabourg (Municipality, Calvados, France)

Flag of Cabourg, current and former versions - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 5 September 2019

Presentation of Cabourg
Flag of Cabourg
Cabourg Yacht Club

See also:

Presentation of Cabourg

The municipality and sea resort of Cabourg (3,965 inhabitants in 2006; 552 ha), located on the Côte Fleurie, is separated from the neighbouring town of Dives-sur-Mer by river Dives.

Cabourg counted only 165 inhabitants in 1793. The village then developed mainly near the Dives. In the 19th century, the population increased until reaching 718 inhabitants in 1866.
Henri Durand-Morimbau, a businessman and lawyer from Paris, decided in the 1850s to create a seaside resort near the small fishing village. To do this, he founded a spa company. With a capital of 12 million francs, the organization bought land bordering the sea consisting of dunes and grasslands. The architect, Robinet, was entrusted with drawing up a master plan. He chose a radio-concentric plan reminiscent of that of the Greco-Roman theaters: the avenues converge on a central square on which is erected a casino making up the stage.
The first stone of the casino, actually built of wood, was solemnly laid on May 9, 1854 and hundreds of trees were planted along the newly drawn avenues. The new seaside resort was inaugurated under the name of Cabourg-les-Bains. But financial resources were quickly lacking and the station suffersed from its lack of service by the railways.
In 1861, a large hotel was built along the shore. It was destroyed and rebuilt in 1907 by architects Virault and Mauclerc. The wooden casino was replaced in 1867 by a new, more functional stone building.
In 1879, a railway line was opened between the station of Dives-Cabourg and that of Mézidon, thus allowing connections from Paris; it was extended to Trouville-Deauville in 1882-1884.

The Grand Hôtel of Cabourg was immortalized by Marcel Proust as the Grand Hôtel of Balbec, an imaginary town very similar to Cabourg. Proust stayed at Cabourg every summer from 1907 to 1914, where he met a colourful jet-set and gambled a lot. Several elements of these stays were reused in the second part of À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur, published in 1918 as the second section of À la recherche du temps perdu, and in Sodome et Gomorrhe, published in 1922 as the third section of the Recherche. Earmarked for destruction, the Grand Hôtel was saved in 1956 by Bruno Coquatrix, the founder and owner of the legendary Olympia music-hall in Paris and later Mayor of Cabourg.

Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 5 September 2019

Flag of Cabourg

The flag of Cabourg (photo, summer 2019) is dark blue with the municipal logo adopted in 2017. The former flag (photo, summer 2014) was white with the previous logo.

Olivier Touzeau, 5 September 2019

Cabourg Yacht Club

Burgee of CYC, as seen locally (left) and as shown on the YCF list (right) - Images by Ivan Sache, 21 December 2003

Cabourg Yacht Club (CYC), founded in 1956 is based on the new marina of Cabourg, set up in the estuary of river Dives. The burgee of CYC is horizontally divided green-white-green with the black letters CYC in the middle of the white stripe.
The list of the clubs affiliated to Yacht Club de France shows the burgee of CYC as green with a white border and the letters CYC in red.

Ivan Sache, 21 December 2003