I’m back …

from the sea. 🙂 Where from else? 🙂

I did it again! What? I re-visited Étretat, Normandy, France. In April 2012 I was here with some friends. We visited many parts of the Normandy. You can find more about that trip here in my blog.

Étretat is a small town, not far away from Le Havre. It has only 1440 citizens. Étretat is best known for its impressive cliffs, including three natural arches and the rock needle. The cliffs consist of chalk and flint-stones. Two of the three famous arches are seen from the town, the Porte d’Aval (left of the beach, with the needle), and the Porte d’Amont (right from the beach). The Manneporte (left of Porte d’Aval) is the third and the biggest one. But, it can’t be seen from the town (but in my photos). The coast is called Alabaster Coast, because of its color. The beaches consist of round  pebbles, mostly flint-stones. The flint-stones are embedded in the chalk and fall into the ocean, when rain and storm dissolve the chalk. The constant movement in the ocean than grinds the stones to pebbles. Chalk is a quite soft kind of rock and very sensitive for water. Thus, chalk coasts have to be preserved from needless stress. Other famous chalk coast in Europe among others are in South-England around Dover and the German island Rügen in the Baltic Sea.  The chalk was generated during the Cretaceous period at the bottom of a lake. The origin of the embedded flint-stones is not completely clarified and resolved.

This time, we’ve had a vacation-house in the old town of Étretat, instead of outside on top of the cliffs. A well renovated old fisherman’s house about 100m from the ocean, and less half the way as the bird flies. When we arrived, we were greeted by a wonderful warm, sunny day. Unfortunately the next days were overcasted and sometimes rainy. But, we were outside despite the weather. In 2012 I was quite disappointed about the waves. I expected to see big waves, because we’re here at the Atlantic ocean. But, the waves were smaller than those at the North-Sea or even the Baltic Sea. This time we were able to see impressive waves, dramatic sunsets and of course the really awesome cliffs at both sides of the beach.

Because of the location of our vacation home, inside the old-town of Étretat, we didn’t need our car very often. Instead, we only used it once for a trip to Giverny. That’s the home and garden from the french impressionistic painter Claude Monet (1840 – 1926). All the other time we left the car in the parking ground. When we were visiting Giverny, the weather changed and we got sunny days again for the rest of our stay. Although the town and the beach are so small and you could assume to have seen everything in only a few hours. There is much more to discover and enjoy.

Although, this was more a family vacation than a photo trip, I certainly took my camera with me. I love to see the different light situations during the day or from day-to-day. Also, the tide changes the ambience. And, so you can get many different photos although you stayed in only one place. Every evening I developed a few photos. Thus, you can have a small overview right now in the gallery below.

Take care!

(I don’t know, why the slideshow needs such a long time to load – sorry for that)

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