On the 21st January 2025 we awoke in our hotel in Honfleur, had a coffee and a Choc Au Pain and load the car and drive on to Étretat.
We cross the Pont du Normandie paying 5.90 euros (£5.01) and drive on towards Étretat.
The Pont de Normandie (English: Normandy Bridge) is a cable-stayed road bridge that spans the river Seine linking Le Havre to Honfleur in Normandy, northern France. Its total length is 2,143.21 metres (7,032 ft) – 856 metres (2,808 ft) between the two piers. It is also the last bridge to cross the Seine before it empties into the ocean. It is a motorway toll bridge with a footpath and a narrow cycle lane in each direction allowing pedestrians and cyclists to cross the bridge free of charge, while motorcycling is also toll-free.
The bridge was designed by Michel Virlogeux, the general studies having been led by Bernard Raspaud from Bouygues. The works management was shared between G. Barlet and P. Jacquet. The architects were François Doyelle and Charles Lavigne. Construction by Bouygues, Campenon Bernard, Dumez, Monberg&Thorsen, Quillery, Sogea and SpieBatignolles began in 1988 and lasted seven years. The bridge opened on 20 January 1995.
At the time it was both the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and also had a record distance between piers for a cable-stayed bridge. It was more than 250 metres (820 ft) longer between piers than the previous record-holder. This record was lost in 1999 to the Tatara Bridge in Japan. Its record for length for a cable-stayed bridge was lost in 2004 to the 2883 meters of the Rio-Antirrio. The total cost of the bridge, ancillary structures and financing was $465 million. The bridge proper cost €233 million (US$250 million).
The cable-stayed design was chosen because it was both cheaper and more resistant to high winds than a suspension bridge. Shortly after opening, the longest cables exhibited excessive vibrations, so several damping systems were quickly retrofitted.
The span, 23.6 metres (77 ft) wide, is divided into four lanes for vehicular traffic and two lanes for pedestrians. The pylons, made of concrete, are shaped as upside-down Ys. They weigh more than 20,000 t (20,000 long tons; 22,000 short tons) and are 214.77 metres (705 ft) tall. More than 19,000 t (19,000 long tons; 21,000 short tons) of steel and 184 cables made by fr:Freyssinet were used.
We arrive in a foggy Etretat and park up in Parking Place Du General De Gaulle and we walk on over to the beach or Plage as it’s called in French.
We stop to take photos of Falaise d'Aval though the fog.
We walk into town to try and find a café to get some breakfast and maybe a souvenir shop. Absolutely nothing is open as its Winter!
The Market place (La Vieux Marche) I was looking forward to visiting is also closed!!
The market square in Etretat is dominated by a fine timber-frame covered market full of charming shops. Plaques on the building recall British and American wartime links to the town, in particular, one that describes a British hospital set up in Etretat during World War I and remembers the 550 British soldiers who died there.
We find a Bar/Tabac La Maupassant where we get coffee and croissants and making friends with a Golden retriever in there having a drink with his French owner.
We walk back to the beach to look at climbing to the cliff tops.
Nature has carved unusual shapes out of the white cliffs in Etretat, and as a result, this picturesque spot attracted many Impressionist painters, who sought to capture the cliffs on canvas. The pretty seaside town of Etretat is also the setting for Maurice Leblanc’s popular French children’s book about Arsène Lupin, the gentleman burglar.
We start to walk up the cliff.
The path slopes up sharply then come the many steps!
It’s hard going but worth the climb up for the views back down.
We reach the top of Falaise D’Aval.
Étretat is best known for its chalk cliffs, including three natural arches and a pointed formation called L'Aiguille or the Needle, which rises 70 metres (230 ft) above the sea. The Etretat Chalk Complex, as it is known, consists of a complex stratigraphy of Turonian and Coniacian chalks. Some of the cliffs are as high as 90 metres (300 ft).
These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eugène Boudin, Charles Daubigny, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet. They were featured prominently in the 1909 Arsène Lupin novel The Hollow Needle by Maurice Leblanc. They also feature in the 2014 film Lucy, directed by Luc Besson.
Two of the three famous arches are visible from the town, the Porte d'Aval, and the Porte d'Amont. The Manneporte is the third and the biggest one, and cannot be seen from the town.
Étretat is known for being the last place in France from which the 1927 biplane The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc) was seen. French World War I war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli were attempting to make the first non-stop flight from Paris to New York City, but after the plane's 8 May 1927 departure, it disappeared somewhere over the Atlantic. It is considered one of the great unexplained mysteries of aviation. A monument to the flight was established in Étretat, but destroyed during World War II, when the Germans occupied the area. A new and taller monument was constructed in 1963, along with a nearby museum.
We cross the bridge and into the cliff, was hoping for something a little more spectacular than a view to the side of the cliff!
Formed underwater several million years ago, the cliffs are made up of deposits of light-coloured calcareous marine organisms and skeletons of siliceous organisms. They then rose up to become these limestone giants streaked with flint.
Particularly hard-wearing, they seem eternal but are nonetheless fragile and constantly changing: wind, tides, rainwater infiltration, freezing and then thawing weaken them: erosion causes regular landslides and the cliff to retreat.
The flint which has fallen down onto the shore takes on its rounded shape in just a few months thanks to the sea, becoming pebbles that protect the cliffs and the town of Etretat, which is built below sea level.
These giants are at the heart of many legends and ancient histories written into the local toponymy: the “trou à l’homme” (cave) saved a sailor’s life, the “ladies’ chamber” became the grave of three innocent young local women.
The Falaise d’Amont is the cliff on the other side of the beach, to the right when looking out to sea, and less than a century ago it was called Falaise du Blanc-Trait (White Line Cliff), because of the whiteness of the chalk, visible from the open sea a great distance away.
How can we not pay tribute to Maupassant‘s keen sense of observation, who in “Une vie” compares the Arche d’Amont (arch) to an elephant dipping its trunk in the sea? It’s all there: the trunk, the head and ears, the front and back limbs and even a Maharajah’s palanquin on its back!
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| Arche d’Amont in the background |
The Porte d’Aval (on the left when looking at the sea), a huge flint archway, was carved by the waves beating the end of the Falaise d’Aval. The 51-metre-high needle bears witness to the geological past of the cliffs of Etretat. It has become famous, gained a universal reputation and inspired many painters and writers. Is it hollow and did it shelter the treasure of the Kings of France discovered by Arsène Lupin, as recounted in Maurice Leblanc’s novel, L’aiguille Creuse?
We walk back down and back around town before giving up on any shops opening and we set off back to the Eurotunnel and home.
One last look at the amazing cliffs of Etretat!
Once back in the UK, I realise just how easy it is driving in France compared to our awful congested motorways and equally awful drivers!
