Before the 1840s, Trouville was a fishing village and the refuge of painters like Corot and writers in search of loneliness like Dumas and Flaubert. It gradually became a fashionable seaside resort, and planks were installed along the coast in 1867. In 1858, the Duke of Morny, son of Hortense de Beauharnais, came to Trouville and bought 395 acres (160 ha) of virgin land and 2 miles (3 km) of fine sand beach across the Touques river. He had the marshes drained and created the future Deauville from scratch with the desire to make it the Kingdom of elegance.