Arromanches-les-Bains (French pronunciation: [aʁɔmɑ̃ʃ le bɛ̃] ; or simply Arromanches) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France.

Geography

Arromanches-les-Bains is 12 km north-east of Bayeux and 10 km west of Courseulles-sur-Mer on the coast 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.

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 materiel 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 being 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 materiel 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.

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.

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

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (April 2021)

List of Successive Mayors

From	To	Name	Party	Position
1995	2020	Patrick Jardin		Optician
2020	2026	Marcel Bastide

Demography

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Arromanchais or Arromanchaises in French.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 430 —     1800 363 −2.39% 1806 450 +3.65% 1821 493 +0.61% 1831 520 +0.53% 1836 534 +0.53% 1841 528 −0.23% 1846 500 −1.08% 1851 490 −0.40% 1856 502 +0.49% 1861 505 +0.12% 1866 533 +1.09% 1872 532 −0.03% 1876 544 +0.56% 1881 481 −2.43% 1886 480 −0.04% 1891 455 −1.06% 1896 444 −0.49%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 444 +0.00% 1906 380 −3.07% 1911 335 −2.49% 1921 273 −2.03% 1926 282 +0.65% 1931 288 +0.42% 1936 262 −1.87% 1946 282 +0.74% 1954 287 +0.22% 1962 298 +0.47% 1968 339 +2.17% 1975 355 +0.66% 1982 395 +1.54% 1990 409 +0.44% 1999 552 +3.39% 2007 609 +1.24% 2012 546 −2.16% 2017 489 −2.18%
Source: EHESS and INSEE

Culture and heritage

Civil heritage

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

• Houses (19th century)
• The Notre-Dame-des-Flots Monument at Rue du Calvaire (1911)
• The Grand Hotel at 22 Rue du Maréchal Joffre (20th century)
• The old Radar Station at Le Callouet (20th century)
• The Château du Petit Fontaine (1764)
• An Orientation table (20th century)
• The Artificial Harbour and Winston Churchill Harbour (20th century)
• The 6 June 1944 Museum (1954)
• A Lavoir (Public laundry) (1896)
• The Town Hall and Boys' Primary School (1884)
• The Village (Antiquity)
• Houses and Hotels (18th-20th century)

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)

A Monumental Cross at Rue du Calvaire (1901)

A Cemetery (1857)

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

Picture gallery

• 
  Arromanches-les-Bains Panorama
• 
  Remains of the Mulberry harbour on the beach
• 
  Arromanches railway station around 1901
• 
  View of the beach
• 
  Arromanches town
• 
  The cliffs along the coast
• 
  Remains of German defences and the Mulberries in the background
• 
  The Lavoir (public laundry)
• 
  Arromanches memorial
• 
  The Museum of the Landings
• 
  Mulberry harbour in operation (1944)
• 
  Commemorative plaque
• 
  Arromanches from Cape Manvieux
• 
  A "whale pier" bridge element from the Mulberry harbour on display since 2004
• 
  The Mulberry harbour in June 1944
• 
  Winston Churchill at Arromanches 21–23 July 1944
• 
  Aerial view of the Mulberry harbour in September 1944
• 
  Sherman tank displayed at Arromanches
• 
  Arromanches Church
• 
  Church of Saint Peter
• 
  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
• French aircraft carrier Arromanches (R95)