Etretat Forty Years On

12 min readOct 4, 2023

We wake up in Le Havre. Today will be a bit busy. The holiday within a holiday was born out of the idea in my head to return to Etretat. Back in 1983, our school trip to France saw us stay somewhere in the hills above the town of Etretat. And it is shocking how little of that French trip I remember. Plus, it would be good to get some photos in which I didn’t accidentally have my finger over the lens, or cut anyone’s head off, or it be in the dark as I couldn’t work the flash, or for the pictures to just be blurred. My trusty Sony camera prevents me doing most of that nowadays.

Etretat is just over half an hour north of Le Havre, but first there is the city to explore. After breakfast we drive into the centre and park under the Hotel de Ville.

I wasn’t sure where we were going to park but there seemed a good idea as we passed some interesting buildings as we drove along the Rue du Strasbourg.

The ‘Narrow House’ being one of them.

It is an art installation, and narrow is right, but at least I now have somewhere to refer to and say “that’s not that bad” when I’m referred to as being the width of a house.

We head towards the harbour. Quays to which have been converted to use for water sports and one has a big humpback bridge across it like it’s trying to be a mini version of the Pont de Normandie.

Behind this massive slab of granite that is the war memorial on the quay

Is the library called Le Volcan. O, I wonder why?

The cathedral isn’t as grand as many we’ve seen (or will see) on this trip, but it is still a fair size, and as with Lisieux the evening before there is an ongoing mass and so this time, we don’t even step foot inside.

Instead at the side of part of the port near the huge Costa Favolosa cruise liner,

Is the container box sculpture. Which might need a bit more colour adding to it.

And as we pass around it, there is a huge container ship passing not far from shore going at a fair pace, it would take it quite a few miles to stop.

We are heading in the general direction of the tourist information office, passing some large impressive, and unusual looking buildings as we do so.

And some large paintings on the sides of buildings as well.

There is a sense of space here, the main roads are wide, and tree lined, with space for cars, bicycles, and pedestrians. And with the sun shining it feels as if it could be a Mediterranean or Latin American city and not just a short hop across the channel to rainy old England.

This is a church.

No, really, it is. it is modern and I’ve never seen anything like it. it is square and due to the immense, almost skyscraper like tower, it is deceptively big.

We turn and head to the sea only to find another large harbour area, one containing hundreds of little boats.

Through whose masts fortified remains can just about be seen.

Further along is a beach where cliffs start to rise beyond, and upon which a modern concrete sculpture sits.

After loading up on tat from the tourist information office we head along the Rue du Boch back towards the Hotel de Ville.

There are some ‘interesting’ sculptures lining the footpaths along here.

And the buildings wither side of the wide space have Art Deco touches and various bas reliefs upon them.

Le Havre was just a place to stop overnight on the way to somewhere else in my mind, and written off as just a port, but the feeling is there was lots more that could have been explored if we had been staying closer and had more time.

On the Hotel de Ville, there were lots of words across each bay of windows, some of which I could translate, but some needed (preferably correctly spelt) subtitles.

It is a big place as on our way out of the city, we left it, drove through an adjoining town, and then drove back into it on the same road.

The drive to Etretat was a leisurely one across lovely countryside. Although with some strangely decorated roundabouts.

Finding parking in Etretat wasn’t so leisurely. All the car parks close to the front were full so after a couple of circuits it was a drive back out to the edge of the town to find parking before wandering back down the hill into town.

There is no river here, but the way the town sits between two cliffs in a natural valley suggests there must have been one here in pre-history.

The town is set up for tourism now, which I don’t remember it being so much when I stayed here on the school trip.

The buildings seem more in line with what we expected to find in Lisieux yesterday and are gorgeous.

We stop and get takeaway galettes in the centre of town and sit and watch as various tour parties traipse through from school trips to pensioner parties.

And then we head to the beach. The views from here and on the cliffs that rise up rapidly on either side are what brings the tourists.

Falaise’s are natural arches in the chalk cliffs formed over millennia.

The warning at the top of the steps down to the pebble beach are, if not unique, then certainly rare. ‘Do not take pebbles from the beach.’ In four languages. The tone gives the impression that there may be snipers hiding up on the cliff ready to take anyone out who tries to sneak off with a pebble.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a day out without some uneven steps to climb, and Etretat has them in abundance.

There is a sign saying there are a lot of steps up to the top of the east cliff and the Notre Dame church which is up there. Someone has scrawled 376 in black marker pen on the sign to indicate exactly how many steps.

At different levels there are little paths off to the side which give good views of the Falaise on the opposite side of the bay,

Or back over the town.

At the top (I didn’t check the count of steps on the way up you’ll be sad to hear) the church is under full scaffolding.

A World War II concrete lookout post is further along the cliff top, and this tall monument has been added.

We pass on the museum and gardens which are up here, mainly because the road train has just arrived and off-loaded Americans, and so we jump on for the downhill leg. (Mainly to save my legs, particularly knees, but to escape the level of dumb questions quickly as well.)

It zig zags down through narrow streets and past large villas and mansions to end up outside Etretat’s Hotel de Ville.

We do some tourist trap shopping and wander around some more of the narrow streets and picture book timber framed houses.

Before posting cards (including one from Etretat to my mum to make up for one not being sent forty years before) and getting drinks for the onward journey. And we climb back up to the car park to continue onwards.

We drive through more lovely French countryside and little villages with large churches before arriving in Fecamp.

A larger town, but parking was again difficult to find, but we eventually found a large car park. This time above the Hotel de Ville, which was odd, as we went down a level from where we drove in, but were still three stories above ground level on the other side of the car park.

We come out in the shadow of the abbey church of the Trinity. Another with restoration work taking place on it.

We walked up alongside quays full of little fishing boats on our way up to the seafront.

Overlooking the town to the east was another large church.

And a lighthouse, that looked like a ship with full rigging from some angles.

On the front we stopped for ice cream, as a boules flash mob played on a court opposite us. Before we headed off into the older part of the town and its narrow street containing timber framed buildings.

Some of which looked derelict from one side, and then grand from the other.

And then there was this place. From the rear it looks like a disused factory.

But then there are the turrets and the spires.

And on one side a long hall, perhaps it is a school.

Then we turn the corner at the front of the building, and we are hit with this.

The Benedictine Palace.

Its where they make the liqueur Benedictine. And it rolls so many things into a single building. It was a factory, a palace, a bar and restaurant, an abbey, and now a museum.

When we had passed it on the way to find parking, we had both thought it to be a church.

From there we wandered down a road opposite the entrance to the bar part of it. the road had examples of many styles of houses.

Some timber framed, more modern ones, a theatre in a building that was part factory and part church, and even Georgian style terracing.

And the most amazing Art Nouveau style house we’ve seen in France. And people looked at us as if we were mad for taking photographs of it.

As with Le Havre earlier in the day, there is a feeling there is a lot more in Fecamp that could have been seen if we were closer and had more time.

I couldn’t help but find some road signs amusing.

Then there was still one more journey to make today. Although the one from Fecamp to Rouen was less through villages and more along motorways, albeit with still plenty of lovely rolling countryside to view.

Coming into Rouen there was another wonderful modern bridge to cross over the Seine. And from it we could see across to the spire of the Cathedral.

The fun and games started with trying to find the hotel. Sat nav said we had arrived, only we were on the wrong side of the road and facing in the wrong direction, and the car park entrance was on a completely different street. We found this, but were told there were no spaces and would need to park at a lower level in someone else’s car park and move it before 8am the following morning. Which seemed mad when we then walked through the Holiday Inn car park and could count half a dozen free spaces, apparently reserved by people already staying there.

But we did have a room upgrade with a balcony, and we found an Indian restaurant within easy walking distance for the first curry of the whole French trip.

A busy day indeed.

For my other articles about our time in France check out the list below.