Municipality of the department of Seine-Maritime, in the Haute-Normandie region. The cliffs site of Etretat is classified in the Major Sites Operations Program (OGS), led by the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development.
Once a modest fishing village, Etretat has become a renowned seaside resort. It is located north of Le Havre in Normandy, on the coast of La Manche in Pays de Caux.
The extraordinary and monumental appearance of its almost immaculate white chalk cliffs and its grayish pebble beaches have made it one of the places of international tourism.
Painters like Gustave Courbet, Eugčne Boudin and Claude Monet contributed a lot to his publicity, immortalizing the specificity.
Writers such as Gustave Flaubert and Guy de Maupassant were faithful to the site while Maurice Leblanc, who lived there, contributed to the myth surrounding the site in an Arsčne Lupine adventure entitled The hollow needle.
Courtine, Manneporte, cliffs of Aval and Amont, the Vaudieu rock or the Aiguille de Belval, here are the mysterious names that carry these sculptures carved by the waves in the chalk and the flint of the plateau of the Pays de Caux.
Some will see the head of an elephant dipping his trunk in the waves, others, like Maupassant claim that a ship, all sails out, could cross the arcade of the Manneporte… Judge you !
One day in 1792 when the sea was unleashed, a Swedish boat was thrown against the cliffs. The inhabitants of Etretat could only see the horror of the wreck. After 24 hours, the winds calmed down and the waves retreated, revealing a cave at the bottom of which lay a man. The latter, simply fainting, awoke as he was carried to a common grave to join his unhappy comrades.
The “hole” that recalls this episode is now pierced and allows to reach the beach of Jambourg. The passage is passable only at low tide.
Ask about tide times before you go for a walk.
A playful scenography to discover the world of Maurice Leblanc, and the secret of Aiguille Creuse d'Etretat. Eigt stages with Arsene Lupin, who gives us confidences and revelations in the middle of a XIXth century decor.
This astonishing spire, which has been rising above the city since 1963, pays tribute to the two aviators who attempted for the first time, on May 8, 1927, to cross the Atlantic Ocean aboard the White Bird.
This course benefits from an exceptional situation. Playing golf in Étretat, perched more than 50 meters above the sea, is a fantastic experience. What about the legendary hole No. 10 ?
Located in the heart of Etretat, not far from the waterfront, Les Halles is the former covered market, built at the initiative of the municipality in 1926. “Companions” of the Department of the Channel carried out the work from simple materials such as wood, from the town of Brionne in the Eure.
When you find yourself facing Les Halles, you will discover a plaque above the porch. The latter indicates that the building served as a hospital to the British and then to the Americans during the Second World War, and more precisely after the landing of 1944.
If the halls are no longer a covered market but shops craftsmen, the communal market is still standing right in front of the square of Marshal Foch.