Самое живописное побережье Нормандии The most picturesque coast of Normandy

Rating 9110

This is the most beautiful place on the Alabaster Coast of France. The height of the rocks in the area of ​ ​ the city of Etretat is a little more than 80 meters. Water gradually dissolves the limestone from which the sheer cliffs are composed, due to which bizarre ledges and arches were formed. Two of the three famous arches are visible from the town: Porte d'Aval and Porte d'Amont. The third and largest arch, Manneporte, is not visible from the town, you have to go to it.
Since the 19th century this place has become very popular among artists and writers. Victor Hugo and Guy de Maupassant, Courbet, Augen Bodin and Vasily Polenov, Degas and Matisse came here, but it was the writer Alphonse Carr, editor of the Le Figaro newspaper, who made this area fashionable among Parisians.
It is advisable to lay the whole day for a trip to Etretat so that you can walk to the arches, since the town itself is located below the sea, along the beach, and the path to the rocks goes uphill and is quite long and high. For a couple of hours there and back to run will not work.
It is always crowded during the summer months, as it is the second most visited place in Normandy after the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. And it really is worth it.