Deauville is magic ! Imagine a place that offers the finest casino in Europe ; a renowned racecourse with polo tournaments and yearling sales in addition to regular horse races ; a golden, sandy beach ; two yachting harbours with moorings for over 1200 boats ; an American film festival attended by Hollywood's greatest stars ; hotels that are the epitome of elegance, tradition and warm welcomes ; and the only congress center in the world that is buried beneath a beach. The town of Deauville offers all that.

Who held the magic wand which, over a period of 140 years, transformed an arid stretch of sandy pastureland into this seaside resort of international renown ?

Page by page the author - calling himself a historian by pleasure, a collecter by passion and a Deauvillais by adoption -comments on his magnificent collection of photographs and unravels the fairytale story of Deauville and of its creator, the duc de Morny.