The Pays de Caux is full of small, intimate places, as well as towns and seaside resorts where you can discover the beauty of Normandy. The cliff of Etretat, where Monet painted his incredible Sunset. You can then visit the other seaside towns, including Dieppe, Fécamp and Le Tréport. You can also visit Le Havre, whose historic centre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Long live the Norman charm! that " petit some chose " that leaves no one indifférent !
The Le Havre, city of a thousand faces
The city of Le Havre owes everything, or almost everything, to two men. One created it, the other reinvented it. If one made it a royal port, the other redesigned the city. These two men, as you can see, are François I and Auguste Perret. Between them, five centuries have passed. Five centuries of history that shaped this city of a thousand faces. For let's face it, Le Havre is not just concrete; it is also the sea, the port, the beach, beautiful avenues and square kilometres of greenery. Le Havre is a whole architecture at the service of the population and its well-being, between classical tradition and modernization, it is the "reinvented poetry of concrete". The city centre is the first European urban ensemble of the 20th century to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Numerous visits in perspective.
Etretat and its mythical cliffs
Etretat and its cliffs, everyone knows it... or almost. A real postcard of Normandy, just like the Mont-Saint-Michel and the Deauville boards, this seaside resort also benefits from a unique natural setting that gives it such a special charm. Claude Monet and after him many other painters have immortalized it. Étretat certainly owes them a good part of its fame. From the top of the limestone cliffs, take a deep breath of iodized air and enjoy the landscape stretching out to sea. From the cliff above, you can see a huge spire pointing up to the sky, which points to the monument in memory of aviators Nungesser and Coli (whose first Atlantic crossing in 1927 failed: this is where the aircraft was last seen). On the cliff of Aval and its monumental arch, the path runs along the golf course and offers a grandiose view, then goes down towards the sea, giving access to the quiet beach of Tilleul. Another way to enjoy this magical place is, at low tide, to slip from the beach into the "Trou à l'Homme" cave, visible at the bottom of the Aval cliff. A metal ladder leads to a tunnel that leads to the next beach, the wildest one. This is undoubtedly the most exotic site. But beware, be sure to check the tide times!
The Alabaster Coast, a splendid work of nature
If Étretat and its Aiguille is the most famous image of the department, the rest of the Albâtre coast, which stretches from Tréport to Le Havre, conceals hundreds of other white and chalky cliffs sculpted by the wind and the sea. These cliffs border the whole of the Pays de Caux and the Yères valley in a long, spectacular and unique alignment on some 130 km to form a fascinating landscape that has been shaped by erosion, time and the sea. The highest cliffs culminate in some places at more than a hundred de mètres. Ever higher, these cliffs gain on average 1 cm per century, ever further, they retreat more and more. The tides nibble at the base of these white and chalky walls by the force of the waves. Nibbling and nibbling and... it's collapsing! Thus appeared the Needle of Etretat and its arches, forming gigantic sculptures. Between these vertiginous works of nature, man has made a place for himself. The wide valleys allowed the installation of important fishing harbours which, with time and the evolution of the economy, gradually became cities and seaside resorts or marinas. The small valleys (or valleuses vives) have been home to fishing villages, which have also been transformed into holiday resorts. Le Havre, Fécamp, Dieppe, Yport, Saint-Valery-en-Caux are notches in this wall. Narrow valleys such as Vasterival in Varengeville-sur-Mer or Antifer in Le Tilleul are simple access roads to small natural beaches. The ports of the Alabaster coast are also known to have been the starting point for many maritime conquests, expeditions and discoveries of distant lands. And today they are a godsend to enjoy the arrival of good weather and a sweet iodized air.
Some nice inland getaways too
The land is first of all Yvetot, the capital of the Pays de Caux. Of Swedish origin, the name of the town pays homage to its founder, the chef Yvar: the suffix "topt" indicates that Yvetot is none other than "Yvar's land". When Clotaire I murdered a lord of Yvetot in the 6th century, he made amends by freeing the town, which would have its own king and be an independent principality until the Revolution. For the anecdote, the stele of the first lord who took the title of "King of Yvetot" is in the church of Saint-Pierre. Today the capital of the Pays de Caux, the commune, largely destroyed in 1940 by bombing, is a lively economic and tourist centre where life is good. Today the town has a strong culinary culture, where small shops and local farmers offer local products.
Then, direction Allouville-Bellefosse, born from the merger of two parishes in 1823: Allouville, whose name comes from Adelolvilla (the name of a Germanic man) and from the Latin villa, and Bellefosse, which probably comes from "beau fossé" (the "ditch" in Normandy designating the embankment planted with one or two rows of beech trees that surrounds each farm. The ensemble thus forms the famous "clos-masure" cauchois). The village has a past that would make the most attractive towns pale in envy. Birthplace of the freebooter Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc (1585-1637), who officially founded the first French colony in the West Indies and Saint-Pierre de la Martinique in 1635, it offers tourists its astonishing ecological past, which is largely due to its Nature Museum and its famous oak tree, which the inhabitants are actively trying to preserve. A thousand-year-old oak tree that seems to have come straight out of a fairy tale and is said to be the oldest in France!
Finally, you should also go to Amfreville-les-Champs to discover the Pays de Caux Ecomuseum - Flax Tradition. This traditional farm allows you to learn all about this plant with multiple uses, very important in the history of the region
Smart Info
When? In the summer, the temperatures are very pleasant but it is also the busiest time of the year. Therefore, prefer spring and autumn for a getaway in the charming spots of the Pays de Caux
Get there. By plane, train, bus or car (A13 - Pont de Normandie coming from Caen or/and Pont de Tancarville coming from Rouen; A 29 coming from the North), everything is possible.
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