Sandra Benhamou first began looking for a holiday home for her young family in the French seaside village of Deauville 15 years ago. She visited several properties, but nothing quite appealed. Then the estate agent decided to show her the wild card: a 1920s half-timbered, Anglo-Norman manor house with a dilapidated cider barn attached. “We were looking for something much smaller,” says Benhamou, “but it was a coup de coeur.”
Sandra Benhamou’s Deauville home in landscaping designed by Jean-Luc Bonnet © DePasquale + Maffini
Scarcely touched since the 1950s, the home is in nearby Tourgéville – along a single-lane road that winds up the hill behind the Hippodrome de Deauville-La Touques – and was a dream renovation.
The property was designed by Charles Adda, the architect behind the art deco baths and cabins that line Deauville’s iconic Les Planches de Deauville, and is surrounded by picturesque farmlands with a rare view that stretches from the English Channel all the way to Le Havre. Benhamou immediately set about restoring the two-storey building to its art deco splendour. She redesigned the fireplace in the spare style of French modernist architect Pierre Chareau and sourced period pieces by Jacques Adnet. A glass conservatory was installed next to the kitchen, while outside she added a pétanque court and a pool.
