There’s something thrilling, to me, about this sleepy place.
And I’m not alone.
Many painters (Claude Monet (1840-1926), for example), as well as writers, were drawn here for inspiration.
I can really understand why… there’s something truly magical here.
And what’s interesting is that Étretat has almost no history. No king built a palace there, no important battle was fought there, and no dish was invented there.
All we know is that according to legend, Étretat was founded by the Vikings, who invaded and established Étretat as a fishing village. In the 19th century, Étretat gradually became a tourist hub, and its character shifted from a traditional fishing village to a resort town for vacationers from France and around the world.
That’s it, that’s everything I know about Étretat, and despite that (or maybe because of it) I fell in love with the place 🙂
I’ve been to Étretat twice.
The first time was with my husband and our four sweet daughters, who were captivated the whole way to Étretat, even though it was cloudy and gray.
The fields seemed dressed up for the rain that looked like it was about to fall, and they seemed genuinely excited.
The girls felt like we were part of something big.
And then we arrived in Étretat.
It’s a small, peaceful town, with sweet houses and alleyways like caramelized sugar.
On every corner there are crêperies, and a sweet smell fills the air.
I don’t know. The gray roofs and the smoking chimneys, together with the smell of crêpes… it’s something that fills even the biggest cynics with happiness, even those who decide ahead of time not to enjoy themselves.
And then we reached the amazing beach. Wow, what a sight, something you need to see once in your life.
Instead of sand, there are pebbles in all kinds of shapes, colors, and sizes.
A dramatic, stormy beach, with a sky in a blue-gray that might deserve its own name in the color palette: Étretat blue.
Plenty of seagulls wander along the beach and the boardwalk, watching the tourists, just as we watch them.
Dramatic chalk cliffs about 90 meters high rise from both ends of this beach, plunging deep into the water and carving out arches. Stunning, simply stunning.
At some point we got hungry, and without thinking much, we walked into a super touristy restaurant.
Mistake. Simply a mistake.
We are a family of six.
A family of six with three teenage girls and one younger child.
So we sat down at the restaurant and waited for the waiters to notice us. And we waited. And then we waited some more, and after more than half an hour, a waiter finally turned to us, completely indifferent to our predicament, and calmly jotted down our order with astonishing ease, and, with an inexplicably condescending look, walked, slowly, slowly, slowly, to the kitchen to put in the order.
Forty nerve-wracking minutes later, our order finally arrived.
Ten minutes after that we finished eating, and then came the wait for the check.
You’d think that would come faster.
Well…
No.
The obvious conclusion was: next time, come prepared, or do your homework and check where to eat in advance. Be smart, and you should do the same…
After the strange food saga, we went back to the beach to breathe in the sea again. It was like dessert. Pure sweetness for the soul.
On the southern side, there’s a tall rock with a sharp point known as “the Needle” (l’Aiguille). South of it is the Manneporte cliff, which you can view by climbing the ridge above the Porte d’Aval.
We weren’t feeling up to much hiking that day and skipped the climb, but we heard the view is amazing…
To the north there’s the Porte d’Amont cliff (Falaise d’Amont).
On both sides, there’s a climb that leads to a stunning viewpoint over the town.
The second time I came to Étretat, I came alone.
This time too, the weather was similar: rainy and gray, and anyone who knows me knows I’m crazy about this kind of weather. To me it’s a million times more exciting and pleasant than any warm day.
This time, I told myself, since I didn’t have hungry kids with me and I had some free time, I’d try to find a better place to eat.
I opened Google Maps and found something that looked great…
What actually happened?
There was no parking in the town itself, only an outside lot that required walking, and the restaurant was far away, up a climb at the other end.
No big deal, I told myself.
It’s healthy and rewarding to walk, and then sit down and enjoy a great restaurant with an amazing view.
I started walking, went down from the parking lot, crossed the town, took two wrong turns, backtracked, climbed the whole way up to the hotel-restaurant, which sits on a ridge, and made it to the entrance.
How should I put it? I wasn’t exactly thrilled at that moment.
And all that just to discover there’s another restaurant with the same name. Not the same place at all…
I gave up.
It’s not meant to be.
And yet I won in a way, because the view was far more breathtaking than the climb.
I walked back down everything I had just climbed and went into a crêperie among the alleys of Étretat.
I ate a very nice, warm salty crêpe, not gourmet but not bad either. The atmosphere was very pleasant, and the waiter happily charged my phone for me. Kind of him… the owners were also really nice and came over to ask how things were and whether they could help with anything else.
So even though I didn’t eat gourmet food, my heart was happy and felt at home. What more could you ask for?
What is there to do in Étretat?
Well, as far as I’m concerned, everything I’ve mentioned is more than enough, and it leaves a real sense of satisfaction.
But if you’re the type who wants more,
I have a few things to suggest.
I’ll note that I haven’t visited them myself, so this isn’t a review, just information I came across and added to my bucket list for next time.
The house of Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941) (creator of Arsène Lupin)
If you haven’t watched Lupin yet, go to Netflix and watch it before they take it down, please (regardless, you should read about it in this article, which covers both the character and the series itself)!
Arsène Lupin is a sophisticated, clever thief, created by the writer Maurice Leblanc, who also lived in Étretat. In his book “The Hollow Needle” (1911), set among the cliffs of Étretat, the burglar Arsène Lupin tries to find a treasure hidden inside the rock known as “the Needle” on Étretat’s beach.
Leblanc’s house is now a museum dedicated to his life and work (Le Clos Lupin – Maison Maurice Leblanc). So now that you’ve seen the show, you’ll probably recognize this beach, and you might enjoy visiting this museum, the writer’s former home.
Link to the website of Maurice Leblanc’s house
Étretat’s gardens: Les Jardins d’Étretat
This is a lovely, not very large garden, with a stunning view over the town and the beach, so on a clear day there’s even more reason to make the climb up to the garden. Inside the gardens, woven among the plants, are face-shaped sculptures. A kind of outdoor museum in the open air.
Étretat’s little train
If you’re not up for walking, and/or you’re traveling with grumpy teenagers, there’s a small tourist train. Sure, it’s very touristy.
But, you are tourists. Why deny it?
It’s a good way to see the viewpoints without actually walking all the way to them. It’s also a great way to snap an especially good photo, when nobody with you, including yourself, has to suffer for it.
Recommended restaurants in Étretat
La Flottille
The cute crêperie where I had a few crêpes that weren’t bad at all.
Phone number: +33 2 35 27 07 78
Link to the restaurant’s website
Le Donjon, Restaurant Gastronomique à Etretat
This is a one Michelin star restaurant specializing in fish and seafood. I planned to go there because it looked amazing, but I never made it!
Link to the restaurant’s website
To sum up,
point your car toward Étretat. You won’t regret it…
Where to stay in Étretat
If you’d like to stay in Étretat and make it a base for exploring Normandy, you can find plenty of hotels and vacation homes through this link. But personally, I’m not convinced Étretat is such a great base for day trips, since there aren’t too many super interesting places nearby.
So instead of Étretat, let me recommend staying in Deauville, which is about an hour and a half’s drive away and close to quite a few attractions, such as the D-Day beaches. If you decide to take my advice, you’ll find a list of excellent places to stay in the article Recommended hotels and vacation apartments in Deauville.
Have you visited Étretat? What else is worth doing?
- Étretat is featured on one of Yossi Drori’s walking routes through Normandy and also on the two-week itinerary written by Zvi Chazanov. In both of these routes you’ll find quite a few other charming places nearby worth visiting.
- You can drive about an hour south from Étretat along the coast to Deauville and Trouville and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
- And finally, it’s worth checking the Normandy travel guide page, which is updated regularly, to see if there are other interesting attractions in the area that weren’t mentioned in this article.
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