Étretat

Étretat is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy in north-western France. It is a tourist and farming town situated about 32 km (20 mi) north-east of Le Havre, at the junction of the D 940, D 11 and D 139 roads. It is located on the coast of the Pays de Caux area.

Étretat
Commune
View of Étretat
Coat of arms
Location of Étretat
Étretat
Étretat
Coordinates: 49°43′N 0°13′E
CountryFrance
RegionNormandy
DepartmentSeine-Maritime
ArrondissementLe Havre
CantonOcteville-sur-Mer
IntercommunalityLe Havre Seine Métropole
Government
 • Mayor (2008–2014) Franck Cottard
Area
1
4.07 km2 (1.57 sq mi)
Population
 (2017-01-01)[1]
1,291
 • Density320/km2 (820/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
76254 /76790
Elevation0–102 m (0–335 ft)
(avg. 8 m or 26 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

The cliffs
One of the chalk cliffs in Étretat

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.[2] The Etretat Chalk Complex, as it is known, consists of a complex stratigraphy of Turonian and Coniacian chalks.[3] Some of the cliffs are as high as 90 metres (300 ft).[2]

These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet.[2] 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.

The GR 21 long-distance hiking path (Le Havre to Le Tréport) passes through the town.

The White Bird

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.[4]

Demographics

Economy

The old Covered Market in Étretat

The economy of Étretat rests mainly on tourism, which gives the locals a growing commercial outlet. The city places itself as the number one tourist attraction in former Normandy, as the site most visited along with Bénédictine distillery and museum at Fécamp, the Rouen Cathedral and the Claude Monet Foundation in Giverny.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the economy was supplemented by kelp-burning on the beaches. The white plumes of smoke by the shore can be clearly seen in George Inness' painting 'Étretat' (1875, Wadsworth Athenaeum). "The discovery and development of iodine-rich mineral deposits in Chile about the same time the iodine-from-kelp industry reached full vigor, dealt the kelp industry another severe blow in the late 1870s. However, small quantities of kelp continued to be harvested for soda, potash and iodine in northern France".[5]

Notable people

Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Garde

Étretat was the birthplace of Élie Halévy (1870–1937), philosopher and historian.

Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) spent most of his childhood in Étretat, at "Les Verguies". In 1882 he wrote a short story for Le Gaulois entitled "The Englishman of Étretat" (L'Anglais d'Étretat), based on encounters in 1868, as a house guest of G. E. J. Powell, with the English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, whom he had helped save from drowning. The dried human hand displayed on one of the tables was later acquired by Maupassant to adorn his Paris apartment; it inspired another short story, "The Flayed Hand" (La Main Écorchée).[6] In 1883 he built his own house in Étretat, "La Guillette", in the Mediterranean style in "Le Grand Val", since renamed rue Guy-de-Maupassant.[7] Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914), the great French operatic baritone whose career centred on Paris and London, also owned a villa there. A friend of the artist Édouard Manet and a keen collector of art, Faure did amateur paintings of the local area, including the scenic cliff. Claude Monet did several paintings in the area particularly of the natural cliff arches and stacks.

See also

References

  1. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. Scheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980). Natural Wonders of the World. United States of America: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. p. 140. ISBN 0-89577-087-3.
  3. https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/~/media/shared/documents/specialist%20and%20regional%20groups/EngineeringGroup/Download%20the%20Field%20Guide.pdf?la=en
  4. Schofield, Brian (2002-09-22). "Hop over: five-day drives just across the Channel - France". Sunday Times.
  5. Lobban, Christopher S.; Wynne, Michael James (1971). The Biology of Seaweeds. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520045859.
  6. Goddard, N. G. (1952). "Maupassant and the English". French Studies. VI: 35–40. doi:10.1093/fs/VI.1.35.
  7. "History of La Guillette". Houseofmaupassant.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-28. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
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