Owing to the sheer quantity of website visitors that the coastal settlement of Étretat gets just about every 12 months, you may mistakenly think that there are no concealed gems still left to uncover. Nonetheless, scratch beneath the surface area of this pleasant french place and you’ll soo discover that there are quite a few top secret spots in Étretat. From the historical to the quirky to the downright odd, we take you by way of the crème de la crème of strange issues to do in Étretat.

Muse for impressionist painters and writers alike about the hundreds of years (but specifically for the duration of the 19th-century), the chalky cliffs of Étretat are renowned the planet about. Boasting an outstanding shoreline dwelling to wilderness walks and seaside vistas, the town consists of regular Normandy-type architecture, all overlooking an azure blue sea.

Greatest-viewed about the course of a prolonged weekend (look at out the best of Étretat resorts listed here), a journey to Étretat can simply be mixed with a go to to nearby Northern France locations this kind of as the charming town of Yport and the industrial metropolis of Le Havre.

Location where Claude Monet painted

The chalky cliffs of Étretat potentially became so renowned mainly because of the actuality that Claude Monet, a person of the most iconic of impressionist painters (and whose artistic renditions of the town are element of the purpose it became so well-known amongst holidaymakers in the initial area) painted together what is now the town’s principal boardwalk.

A plaque midway together the promenade celebrates the actuality, right in front of the Restaurant Perrey (which, in transform, has very mixed critiques if on line assistance is just about anything to go by). The spot marks the specific spot from which Claude Monet painted the ‘Bâteau de pêche’ in 1885. Component of a collection of paintings established in between 1883 and 1886, the paintings are instantly recognisable as Étretat. 

Château des Ifs

On the fringes of town, when you’re driving to Étretat by auto, you’ll probably spot the wonderful and grandiose Château des Ifs, and that’s how you’ll know that you’re certainly in the French countryside. Even though the Château is regrettably closed to the public today, its outstanding exterior can be admired from guiding the iron grill gates which mark the entryway to the assets. 

The oldest element of the castle you see today has the architecture of the early reign of Louis XIII, however no formal information continue being as to the specific building of the Château. The estate then remained in the palms of the Hervieu spouse and children up right until the estate was bought to Pierre Dufresne in 1859.

Étretat seaside diving boards

Vestiges of the previous are in no way way too significantly absent when it arrives to Étretat and this is potentially nowhere a lot more apparent than when you spy the historic diving boards from the center of the 20th-century at the close of the promenade boardwalk, right over the seaside.

The specific spot for the diving boards can be located at the foundation of the steep techniques which lead up  to the Amont cliff. Étretat has been a well-known vacation locations because at minimum 1850, when the town put in three diving boards for bathers to make superior use of. Of all the top secret spots in Étretat, this is a person you could simply skip if you do not seem carefully enough…

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde

Perched higher on the clifftops and overlooking the relaxation of the town, the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde and its surrounds present some of the best sea vistas to be located everywhere in Normandy. There has been a church on web site because at minimum 1854, when an ecclesiastical developing was commissioned by Reverend Père Michel in get to commemorate these sailors who experienced been lost at sea.

In time, the very little church was painted by quite a few an impressionist painter, like Monet, Flaubert, and Male de Maupassant. Sad to say, the church was ruined in 1942 for the duration of the Nazi Occupation of France. The church was solely rebuilt in 1950 and it is this construction that you can admire today. Even though the interior of the church is closed to the public, its gorgeous exterior can however be admired all over the 12 months. 

Hôtel la Home

Just one of the oldest buildings in the town has because been remodeled into a lodge in the heart of all the action. Located in just a principal thoroughfare of the town, it’s tough to skip the Hôtel la Home owing to the actuality that the lodging is set from the backdrop of a 14th-century townhouse which even boasts ornate wooden carvings.

Musée du patrimoine d’Étretat

On the top of the cliff of Amont, and positioned just techniques absent from the church, the Heritage Museum of Étretat is perfectly-reviewed and is rarely-visited when in comparison with the seaside, or even the hiking trails and viewpoints at the top of the chalky cliffs. 

A cultural immersion into the record of the town and its surrounds, the museum is perfectly-reviewed and fees just €2.50 to enter. Open up each individual day (with the exception of some public holiday seasons), it’s listed here you’ll discover that the town has been inhabited because prehistorical times as perfectly as the actuality that the town was dwelling to an oyster park which equipped Marie Antoinette herself. 

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