INHERITANCE. A century ago, the Levillain family bought the Hôtel de Calais in Le Tréport
By Lucas Farcy
Published on
It is one of the oldest businesses in the city of Le Treport (Seine Maritime) : L’Calais hotel, located at the foot of the Saint-Jacques church, has overlooked the port for nearly 250 years. Including 103 years exactly within the Levillain family.
“My great-grandfather bought the Hôtel de Calais on December 3, 1919” says Daniel Levillainthe current owner and manager of the hotel.
He took over the establishment in 1994 with his sister and had already worked there since 1989: “I first redo the electricityto be in the standards”, says the one who studied electromechanics before convert to hotel manager.
Daniel Levillain quickly understood that he was working in a place with a particularly rich history. He therefore decided to collect the documents which would allow him to retrace this storyto then share it with its customers.
An auction
In a booklet distributed in the establishment, visitors thus discover that on December 3, 1919, Alphonse Levillain bought the hotel by bringing back auctions ‘by candlelight : the duration of the auction lasts the time that a candle is completely consumed. When it expires, the last bid wins.
Victor Hugo spent two nights there
Among the many travelers who have stayed at the Hotel de Calais are the writer Victor Hugo, who stayed there twice on August 6, 1835 and September 6, 1837. The hotel was then called La ville de Calais .
This passage is attested by letters written by Victor Hugo during his stay and translated to his wife and his friend Louis Boulanger. Room 22 of the hotel now bears the author’s name.
By making this purchase, Alphone Levillain would change the destiny of his descendants over several generations. Associated with his brother Léopold and their mother Clémentine, the family acquires two other buildings in the rue de la commune de Paris, to offer furnished rentals, as well as the Golf hotel, on the cliff, which will be requisitioned during the Second World War to treat the wounded before being destroyed by the German army.
The family was then one of the most influential in Tréport and Léopold Levillain would even become mayor of the port city from 1940 to 1941. During the Second World War, the hotel also housed and supplied in May and June 1940 “Soldiers and civilians, French, Belgians, English, Poles and the population of Mers, as well as inhabitants of Tréport”, as evidenced by a plaque placed at the foot of the hotel, in the street. The German occupier then requisitioned the hotel and remained there until the liberation.
After the war, the hotel as seasonal rentals will experience good growth and the following generations of the Levillain family will succeed in making this business prosper.
A new elevator for 5 years
“I knew that we would have to start again one day and that there would come a time when everything would have to be redone, to install modern showers for example”, says Daniel Levillain, who has always had in mind the idea of keep the character of your hotel while matching it with modern conveniences. Arrangements that are sometimes difficult since the building has changed a lot over the centuries: the first traces of an inn on the site of the hotel date back to 1778! The current hotel, integrated on several levels and linking several buildings, still retains the traces of these developments.
The last significant construction site dates back to the year 2017, when an elevator was installed along the building. With its transparent walls, the elevator allows you to reach your room while admiring the port of Tréport.
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