As you enter Luc-sur-Mer, north of Caen, it's hard not to see the water tower topped with a large drawing of a whale. The cetacean's tail is inscribed in the logo of the municipality and its silhouette is once again visible on a traffic sign. "Everyone knows the Luc-sur-Mer whale," smiles Françoise, who has lived in the town for about twenty years. When I was little, in Caen, people would talk to us about it and we would go to see her on a school trip." It is a 20 m long and 40 tonne whale, stranded on the beach of the seaside town on the night of 14 to 15 January 1885.
Created in 1966, the Brotherhood of the Whale celebrated the anniversary of the event on Sunday, January 14, 139 years later, with a gathering in the municipal park where the skeleton of the animal is exhibited, before a small lantern parade in town. "At the time, a child was passing by and came across this stranded monster. He had alerted the population. The whale had been on the beach for a month because no one knew what to do with it," says Claude Bossard. This deputy mayor is in charge of the whale house and the great whaler of the brotherhood.
"Great to have kept it"
In 1885, the cetacean's blubber had finally been sold to a perfumer and the bones... to the city of Caen, which had exhibited them in the church of Vieux-Saint-Sauveur for more than forty years and then in the Jardin des Plantes. In 1937, Caen offered the whale to Luc-sur-Mer, as a return to its roots. "You don't see them every four mornings," jokes Elinda, a Calvadosian who is visiting the sea with her family. When you walk along the coast, it's one of the places to see. It's the little whale hook." In the park, which was full of flowers, Jef had his picture taken in front of the skeleton: "I had seen them in Quebec. This one is beautiful. It's great to have kept it." A "nice emblem" in the eyes of Sophie, who praises "a discovery for young and old".
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If whaling existed in Normandy at the time of William the Conqueror, in the Middle Ages, seeing the mammal wash up on the coast of Nacre in 1885 was a real surprise. Luc-sur-Mer has taken a liking to his whale. The brotherhood inducts inhabitants who have served the life of the community and pays tribute to the cetacean every year. New premises, updated with more accessible and attractive explanations for young audiences, are planned for 2025/2026 for the whale house. To better illuminate the presence of this spectacular skeleton in the gardens of the town hall and the whale drawings in the four corners of the small seaside town.