Berck-Ville, L'Ecole de la Baronne de Rothschild, Berck-sur-Mer

In 1878, James Edouard de Rothschild (1844-1881) bought two hectares of land at Berck-sur-Mer within a couple of hundred yards of the tubercular hospital he had built in 1871.  Here he built a Swiss style chalet among the dunes facing the sea with the intention of spending the summer months there. James called it the ‘Chalet des Oyats’, oyats being a sort of gorse that grows in sand dunes. James and his wife, Laura Thérèse (1847-1931) also endowed the local village with a school, named after the Baroness. After James’ death, his widow Laura Thérèse (1847-1931) used the Chalet as her seaside villa, and she establsihed a clinic for consumptive children.