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Military conflicts can bring sudden and radical changes to the concept of the frontier, sometimes leading to the rapid construction of fortifications, such as the coastal defenses erected in Western Europe by the Germans from 1940, known as the ‘Atlantic Wall’. This architectural structure fulfilled a defensive function and furnished propaganda material for the Nazi regime. Over the decades since the war, this heritage dating from the dark hours of the Occupation has seen a continuous process of recognition as heritage, helped along by the development of memory tourism as part of the region’s development strategies. This article proposes to take a new look at how these vestiges are managed, by focusing in particular on the beaches of the D-Day landings and the future of the Atlantic Wall in Normandy. It intends to draw attention to the initiatives of the public authorities, and especially of the historic monuments administration, since the end of the Second World War. From reusing available buildings in a region devastated by the fighting to the need for places of memory, this article examines the various factors which have contributed to the progressive heritagisation of these vestiges.

Since 2012, the ‘Inventaire général du Patrimoine culturel’, a heritage inventory service under the auspices of the Normandy regional council, has been documenting and studying contemporary artworks, created in the framework of the “1 % artistique” programme - a legal obligation in France, founded in 1951, whereby one percent of the budget of public buildings must be devoted to works of art. When architects are appointed for the design of a public building, their mission includes the elaboration of a decorative programme and the choice of the artists to carry it out. This decorative project is presented to a special committee responsible for studying such projects in public buildings, which then approves (or does not approve) the artwork proposed. Ninety-six artworks have been created between 1954 and 1986 for 67 public Lycées (secondary school for 15 to 18 year-olds) in the Calvados, Manche and Orne departments. Some of them are the result of a harmonious collaboration between artists and architects, helped by associations already established, the mutual appreciation of each other’s work, the awareness of the legal obligations of the 1 % programme, the involvement of the stakeholders, or thanks to mutual respect. For other commissions, the dialogue between artists and architects was more complicated. Negative opinions of the committee responsible for the study of the decoration projects in public buildings have sometimes led to a lack of enthusiasm or even a renunciation on the part of the artists and architects. The interventions of the local authorities, interceding on behalf a particular artist or against a particular proposal, have also led to a refusal to carry out the commission or to the permanent abandonment of decorative artworks.

The horses in the Bayeux tapestry. The makers of the Bayeux tapestry were very keen on horses which feature throughout the embroidery, about 200 in all. They are depicted with great precision, giving us an insight into the different pieces used for harnessing the horses and into the techniques of mounted fighting, at which the Normans were expert. An aesthetic appreciation is also possible of the way the horses are depicted and staged. The artists of the tapestry had their own techniques for the representation of movement and perspective, particularly in the battle scenes. The tapestry does not answer all our questions however, and other sources are needed to understand Norman society towards the middle of the eleventh century, a society in which the horse occupied a special place.

During the nineteenth century, the success of Trouville, with its reputation founded on the novel practices of therapeutic sea bathing, gave rise to the development of seaside resorts all along France’s Channel coast. Their creation was based on speculative initiatives which followed a similar general pattern: the purchase of real estate by a private speculator and the creation of a development company charged with dividing the land into parcels and commercialising the individual building plots. This company was also responsible for the layout of the resort’s streets and for building its public seaside facilities. This process of appropriation of the Channel coast, notably on the maritime edge of Normandy’s Pays d’Auge, was particularly dynamic during the middle of the century, with the creation of Cabourg in 1854 (under the impulsion of the Paris lawyer Henri Durand), Villers-sur-Mer in 1856 (at the initiative of the architect Félix Pigeory), Houlgate in 1858 (under the direction of the architect Jacques Baumier) and Deauville the following year.

Starting out from the commune of Camembert in the pays d’Auge in Normandy, a place which enjoys an archetypal image of a well-preserved piece of countryside, this article sets out to evaluate the effects on the landscape of the modifications in built forms resulting from changes in population and transformations in the agricultural economy. The abandonment or transformation of old buildings and the multiplication of new constructions either for housing or for livestock rearing are important factors in the way the landscape is changing and constitutes an invitation to reflect on the future of this landscape.

The use of stone in Normandy’s old rural buildings is not well documented. These uses vary widely from one part of the province to another. The method applied to study these uses was to articulate the study on the material itself and its quarry origins, to observe the old rural buildings in the field and to confront these observations with written sources (‘tabellionnages’, land registers, narrative sources, building accounts…) and with archaeological evidence. Although many considerations are at play in the use and provenance of the stones, it is clear that when geology permitted it, local resources were used whenever possible for the structural walls. Alongside stone quarries which supplied one or several parishes, other quarries produced higher quality stone and finished or semi-finished products. Finally, for certain specific uses, rural construction used stones from further afield, produced and commercialised at a few centres.

Both in bocage country and in open-field country, the study of the ways buildings are set in the landscape and the ways they are disposed on the plot of property is essential for the correct understanding of rural architecture. More than in earlier periods, the last fifty years have seen the disappearance or the transformation of many buildings and structures, profoundly changing the relation between architecture and the environment.

The mills which are to be seen scattered over the old maps of the Cotentin Peninsula bear witness to forgotten customs. They left their mark on local landscapes even after they had been abandoned and the roads leading to them were no longer frequented. Whether they were simple water-mills or industrial flour-mills, they had a dramatic influence on the water courses on which they were located and on the estuaries, the form of which was often shaped by tide-mills mills which are no longer visible today. The windmills, with their ‘machine-architecture’ gave life to the hilltops. Their unusual primitive turrets which, still flanked by amazing milling cages in the 19th century, may have been invented in this region.