Normandy's chalk cliffs — Monet and Maupassant's favourite coastline
Étretat is Normandy's most dramatic coastal village — a small pebble beach framed by towering white chalk cliffs with natural arches and a free-standing needle (L'Aiguille) rising 70 metres from the sea. Claude Monet painted the cliffs more than 40 times from 1883 to 1886; Guy de Maupassant set stories here; and Maurice Leblanc's gentleman thief Arsène Lupin supposedly hid his treasure in the Creuse cave beneath the cliffs. The village has remained largely unchanged.
Étretat was a small fishing village until Alphonse Karr, a Parisian journalist, 'discovered' it in 1851 and wrote about its extraordinary scenery. The train from Paris made it accessible to artists and Parisians from the 1860s onwards, and Monet, Courbet, Corot, and Delacroix all painted here. Maupassant grew up nearby and set several stories here. The Belle Époque casino and hotels brought a fashionable crowd in the 1890s; today the village is entirely oriented around the cliffs and coastal walks.