"A Romantic Weekend at Etretat" a Étretat Travel Page by Renteboy

Please find my journal I wrote during my weekend Etretat.

It is now Friday evening and we are having a break in our residence so it is the ideal opportunity to write something about this quite but ooh so lovely town.
In fact besides hiking, one museum (of the Gentlemans burglar: Arsene Lupin) and a dozen restaurants and hotels ... these is "nothing" to do here. Ok, that doesnt mean you cant do anything over here, but sometimes this is what you are looking for. (I hope the wine doesnt makes this report to difficult to read :-) )
Speaking of wine, as we entered the village in the evening and this morning we visited the Tourist Office which is in the center of the town. On our way back we bought some wine, a baguette and some cheese… (du vin, du pain et du Bourcin) to plunge ourself in our French adventure. After our large breakfast we put on our walking shoes and went exploring the East side of the town.

Because the weather wasn’t that nice, we shorten our trip to a 2hour walk and went back to the village and get some refreshments went back to our place to take a short nap <yawn> and here we are now, exploring maps and reviewing the pictures of today. Pretty lazy day, but that’s was the goal of getting here… to chill, relax and enjoy some hiking.

It is now Saturday afternoon and just back from a lovely walk in the outer part of the town I would like to write something more about this city now.
This small village is situated at sea-level surrounded by cliffs and counts a dozen of streets. Near the sea you find most of the shopkeepers and at the center of the town you find the town hall with the Information Center in front of it. At the end of the town you find the church and on the hill slopes and edges of the town you find most of the Villas which gives this town a more "higher class".

Until the beginning of the XIX century, Etretat is only a hamlet for fishing men, but in the beginning of that century painters and songwriters discover this quite little town and got inspired by it. Painters like Isabey (1822) Bonington (1823 et 1825), Le Poittevin (1931), Jongkind (1847 et 1851), Mozin, Stanfield doesn’t ring a bell with me, in fact I never heard from them at all, but all these names and numbers make a big impression in a travel report, don’t you think? :-) Anyway, they where the reason people gained interested in Etretat. Other names involved are Alphonse Karr (writer), who wrote some lovely stuff in a few roman’s which I will translate into: “wow, incredible beautiful harbor created by nature surrounded by gigantic rocks … wow and stuff”
With these events the higher class found there way to this town and builded very beautiful villas in the second part of the 19th century and start living over here. A golf club was created on the south slope of the villages at 1906, which has a gorgeous view over the sea and landscape.

The most remarkable rock formation is “La port d’Aval” (“the door of approval”), “Trou a l’Homme” (“hole at men” … don’t shoot me for these pervert words, I didn’t invented them :-) ) and “L’ Aiguille” (“the needle”) behind it.
You have to wait for the right time to travel over the beach which submerged when the sea level drops. On the window of the Tourist Information point and on the west side of the beach (at the stairs) you will find a tide-table which shows the hours of the max and min state of the tides. Please take into account a margin of at least 4 hours before high tide to get back before your exit has been blocked by the sea. We went for a short walk trough the “Trou a l’Homme” to see the beach at the other side, but in fact you can walk for an hour along the coasts that has been released by the sea. The lowest ebb tide was at 21PM but we gave it a try round 19PM and it was already possible to kick off, so you get at least 4h to do … whatever you want to do!

If you don’t stay in a hotel and you want to get breakfast, there 2 bakeries in town and 2 small supermarkets which are also open on Sunday until noon. There is a small shop at a corner which sells whine, fruit and cheese so at our first day we bought the local cheese in a hart shape. I personally am not a great cheese lover, but I must say I really liked this one. Very sharp nose and taste but not that aggressive aftertaste (first one is, I’m telling ya).