The natural monuments of Étretat

In my last posts I wrote about the Alabaster Coast in a more general style. I wrote about the materials and so on from a ‘technical’ point of view. But, because of these facts, the coast became interesting for many, many visitors. People are interested in seeing the natural monuments created by erosion. So, many, many tourists come to the coast every year.

Although, there are some more interesting places, I’m focusing here on the part of the coast around Étretat.

When standing on the beach in Étretat you can find several monuments. I start on the right. Here we have “La Falaise d’Amont”, it’s the smallest of the three gates. On your left, we have “L’Arche et l’Aiguille”, the big arch and the rock needle behind. Further left, not visible from the beach itself, we have the huge gate “La Manneporte”. In the gallery below, you can find one image with a person standing inside La Manneporte. See, how tiny she is 🙂

When climbing up the cliff to you left, you’ll come the a group of rock needles in the cliff, the “Chambre des Demoiselles” (room of the virgins). Their story is like this: three virgins were kidnaped and locked in a cave because they refused to marry him. After three days and nights muted in the cave, an old woman saw three angel-like apparitions ascending to the sky. 

Another monument is accessible from the beach, a huge natural cave. Although, the entrance of the cave is below the water at flood time, the cave has natural emergency places to wait for low-tide and come back to Étretat safely.

Take care!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.