"A perfect weekend in Etretat" a Étretat Travel Page by aemilys

November 11 is a holiday in France so I've got the day off and a 3-day weekend. This is my last chance to get out of the city until next year so I've decided to revisit Etretat. I've been before but never got any pictures so this time I will take lots.

Don't care if it rains, all I want to do is stand on the shore and look out on the ocean. I may also hunt for that elusive perfect galet. Then I will eat some seafood and I think that's enough for one weekend...

Just back and what a magnificent weekend it was! I even got carried away and did some hiking. After that I was transformed into Emily the intrepid marine biologist and I got some excellent shots of all sorts of interesting marine life. And what about bird watching? Well, I did that too. What a blast!

According to art historians it was in Etretat that Monet learned the importance of changing light, so essential to his later cathedral paintings.

He is but one of the many artists, musicians, and writers to have fallen under the spell of Etretat. Guy de Maupassant and Jacques Offenbach both had homes here; Delacroix, Corot, Boudin and Courbet painted here - among many others - and Marice Leblanc set his famous novel l'Aiguille Creuse right here in Etretat.

There is even a song about Etretat by Charles Aznavour. It is called Les Galets d'Etretat and of course it is in French.

La mer a Etretat,
Lorsque l'hiver fait rage,
A la beaute sauvage
Que je retrouve en toi
En vague se dechaine
Ecumante de haine
Mais belle malgre tout

Et toi comme la mer
Furieuse sous l'orage
Tu broies sur ton passage
Ce qui gene tes pas
Ton coeur est plus amer
Que l'eau morte des plages
Et froid comme sont froids
Les galets d'Etretat
Les galets d'Etretat

La mer a Etretat
Est sans couleur precise
Tantot bleue, tantot grise
Comme tes yeux parfois
Tranquille ou en fureur
Elle court au rivage
Qu'elle frole ou saccage
Au gres de son humeur

Et toi comme la mer
Furieuse sous l'orage
Tu broies sur ton passage
Ce qui gene tes pas
Ton coeur est plus amer
Que l'eau morte des plages
Et froid comme sont froids
Les galets d'Etretat
Les galets d'Etretat

Mais saurais-je jamais
Quel est ton vrai visage
Celui fait a l'image
De mon espoir en toi
Ou l'autre plus secret
Fuyant comme un mirage
Qui eclairait pour moi
Les galets d'Etretat

Etretat is a small town (population 1,615) located on the coast of Haute Normandie in the Seine Maritime department (76). It is one of the rare locations in France that is not reachable by train but don't worry, there is bus service from Le Havre and Breaute as well as Fecamp. Of course if you have a car all the better.

Once you're in Etretat it's easy if you think of the town as four distinct zones. As you stand on Le Perrey (the concrete boardwalk on the beach) and you look out to the sea, the Amont Cliff with Notre Dame de la Garde is to your right, the Aval Cliff which looks like "an elephant plunging it's trunk into the sea" is on your left, the town is behind you and the beach is at your feet.

And thanks to JLBG I now know that the name of the "Bird: Oie des moissons (harvest goose) Anser fabalis" the "Plant: (Wild) Chou potager (cabbage) Brassica oleracea" and an alternative name for "Slot machines are colloquially called "bandits manchots" (single handed bandits)!"

Have fun in Etretat!