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Dieppe

Dieppe is a town in the Seine-Maritime département of Haute-Normandie (eastern Normandy), France, with a population (1999 census) of 34,653 people (Dieppois).

A port on the English Channel with a regular ferry service to Newhaven, East Sussex, Dieppe also has a popular beach, a 15th century castle and the churches of St. Jacques and St. Remy.

On July 23, 1632 300 colonists headed for New France departed Dieppe.

First recorded as a small fishing settlement in 1030, the town was largely destroyed by Anglo-Dutch naval bombardment in 1694. Rebuilt after 1696, it was popularised as a seaside resort following the first visit in 1824 of the widowed Duchess of Berry.

On August 19, 1942, during the Second World War, it was the site of the Dieppe Raid, a bloody landing by Allied soldiers, mainly Canadian.

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