Hotel Normandie is a boothotel, now the boat restaurant of Normandy, a modernist building on the edge of Oostduinkerke and Koksijde in West Flanders. History Boothotel Normandie Boothotel Normandie
The history of the building dates back to 1933. The Goetmaeckers-Carly family wanted a catering business, but did not have the necessary financial resources. It would eventually be painter Robert Buyle and his brother-in-law Simon, who will let Boetotel "La Péniche" go out and appoint Goetmaeckers-Carly as tenants. Simon had a snack bar in Paris and both owners soon realized that their investment in Oostduinkerke would yield much more by spending it on themselves than having a lease of it. In the pre-war period, "La Péniche" attracted many French rich industrialists who regularly organized their hunting dinners and meetings. During this period the French Frank was twice as strong as the Belgian Frank. Buyle-Simon decided to turn off the employers after 3 years (contract 3-6-9), thus making it easy for the rich French clientele to take over.
Goedmaeckers-Carly were informed one year before the expiration of the first 3-year period. This time, however, the financial situation was in favor of the developers. After a few years of exploitation and building a rich clientele, it was encouraged to stamp something out of the ground ...
The French clientele was also informed. And it was precisely in this regular group of customers that these issues were also discussed: the new project had to be a boat; especially because at that time, the French package of Normandy in that year (1935) had won the "blue pennant": this mark was found in the competition between Europe and America for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.
So when Goetmaeckers-Carly had his own 'Normandy', this again featured in their French clientele's map.
During that time, it was sold in the area between Saint-André and the Doornpanne, and Goedmaeckers-Carly bought a piece of land 200m away to build a competitive booth.
Originally, the building was not supposed to look like a real stone boat. The Bruggeman brothers (municipal searchers) designed a rectangular volume with only a few boat features. However, the contractor changed things here to satisfy the builder and thus the building got an explicit boat form. Architect Bruggeman still mentioned the modified design years later "the biggest monster along the Belgian coast"
Today we can call it a part of the pop architecture. In addition, the sign is essential and perhaps more important than the construction itself. Flemish monument award 2007
After a long period of neglect, Normandy was transformed into a restaurant-tearoom. For this purpose, it received the Flemish Monument Prize in 2007, a prize worth 12,500 euros awarded annually by the Flemish government.
The Normandy was protected as a monument by La Péniche on March 10, 1994.
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