Étretat - France Trip 2020

This summer was supposed to be special. Due to the circumstances of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, travel had to change a bit this year and we found a different way. After long planning, we decided to explore the French regions of Normandy and Brittany by car. In this vacation, we want to try a new way of traveling and immerse ourselves in unique and less touristy areas. So, in August, we set off to our first destination: Étretat on the Alabaster Coast.

Étretat - the picturesque cliffs on the English Channel

After about 8 hours of driving across France, we arrived at our first stop. We made the drive enjoyable with plenty of podcasts. And so, in the evening, we arrived at our small apartment in Bruneval, exhausted and fell into bed immediately. The next morning, after a nice breakfast on our small balcony overlooking the Alabaster Coast, we started planning our day.

Étretat is about 5 kilometers away from our place, so we decided to go on foot. And then we faced our first challenge: the steep cliffs on both sides that we had to climb on foot. So we started our journey and climbed the 50-meter-high chalk giants. Once at the top, we walked along the cliff edge towards the lighthouse, which served as a midway point for us. However, at that point, we didn't expect the French farmers. The path along the cliff edge abruptly stopped, so we walked past cow transit paths and old fortifications of the Nazi regime on the Atlantic Wall towards the lighthouse.

It's also worth mentioning that in this beautiful place, we had no reception or GPS signal, so we wandered towards Étretat relatively blindly. But after 50 minutes, our odyssey came to an end when we stood completely perplexed on an old farm and were kindly asked to go back. So, we had no choice but to take the footpath back to the accommodation. Now, we had to make our way to the small town nestled between the limestone rocks by car. The only problem in the small town: the parking situation.

After a long search, we finally found a parking space near the Étretat Gardens and set out to explore this little town. What was very reassuring and made us feel very safe, both in Étretat and in the rest of Normandy and Brittany, was the fact that there is a mandatory mask requirement in public places and tourist attractions to reduce the risk of infection.

Unfortunately, we had bad weather that day, so our planned activity of paddleboarding along the cliffs literally fell into the water. So, we spontaneously decided to head towards the "Jardins d'Étretat", an excellent neo-futuristic garden. The works displayed here seem like they are from another world and impressed us.

After the detour to the gardens, we went to the steep cliffs to capture some shots with the drone during low tide. The endless cliffs stretch along the Alabaster Coast towards Fécamp.

After these impressions, we set off for dinner because we were hungry. Personally, I had set myself the goal of trying out some typical Norman and Breton dishes. First on my list was freshly caught mussels with fries, called "moules frites". Seasoned with a white wine sauce, they tasted incredibly delicious, and they were not the last mussels we had on this trip, I can tell you that.

Now, our next stop was on the agenda: Mont Saint Michel in the Wadden Sea. We crossed the Pont de Normandie, the longest bridge in Europe, and made our way towards perhaps the most famous sight in France after the Eiffel Tower.