Paris to Étretat by private car — the Normandy cliffs in a day

Étretat has no railway station. The nearest is Le Havre or Bréauté-Beuzeville, and from either you need a bus that runs a handful of times a day. It is one of the most photographed places in France and one of the hardest to reach without a car, which is why it stays noticeably less crowded than its fame would suggest.

The drive is two and a quarter hours on the A13. Once there, the two clifftop walks — the Falaise d’Aval with the arch and the needle to the south-west, the Falaise d’Amont with the chapel to the north-east — take about ninety minutes each. Your driver waits in the village car park for as long as you are up there.

Distance

200 km

Drive time

2 h 15 each way

Day length

10–11 h door to door

From

€760

Which cliff to walk

Most visitors do the south-west side, the Falaise d’Aval, because that is where the arch and the needle are. The path climbs from the seafront, and the classic view — the arch in profile with the needle behind it — is about twenty minutes up. Beyond that the path continues to the Manneporte, the larger and emptier of the two arches, which most people never reach.

The north-east side, the Falaise d’Amont, is the one to walk if you want the postcard of the whole bay with the arch on the far side. It is a shorter climb and it has the seamen’s chapel and the Nungesser and Coli monument at the top.

Check the tide before you go

At low water you can walk out onto the shingle beneath the Porte d’Aval and through onto the next beach. At high water that is impossible and, on a rising tide, dangerous. The difference between the two visits is significant, and the tide tables for the Seine-Maritime coast are published well in advance. Send us your date and we will tell you what the water will be doing.

The return leg is where this trip earns its money

Étretat on its own is a four-hour visit, which does not fill the day you have paid for. Honfleur is fifty minutes south across the Pont de Normandie and is the obvious second stop: the old harbour, Sainte-Catherine’s timber church and somewhere decent to eat. Fécamp is twenty minutes north with the Bénédictine palace. Le Havre, twenty-five minutes south, is a UNESCO site for Auguste Perret’s post-war reconstruction and is a genuinely interesting hour if concrete modernism is your thing.

What makes this journey different

• Falaise d’Aval, the Porte d’Aval arch and the Aiguille needle
• Falaise d’Amont, the Notre-Dame de la Garde chapel and the clifftop path
• Jardins d’Étretat, the sculpted gardens above the sea
• Honfleur, Le Havre or Fécamp added on the return leg
• Tide-dependent: the beach walk under the arch only works at low water

How the day runs

1. 07:30Pick-up in Paris

   From your hotel, apartment or airport.

2. 09:45Étretat

   Dropped on the seafront. Falaise d’Aval first, while the light is on the arch.

3. 12:30Lunch in the village

   Or the Jardins d’Étretat above the sea.

4. 14:30Honfleur or Fécamp

   Fifty minutes south across the Pont de Normandie, or twenty north.

5. 19:00Back in Paris

   Or on to a Normandy hotel.

What the price includes

• The whole vehicle, not a seat: four people pay what one person pays.
• All motorway tolls and fuel, on both legs of the journey.
• Your driver’s waiting time at every stop, with no meter running.
• Parking charges at the sites you visit.
• Baby, child and booster seats, fitted free on request.
• Flight tracking and free waiting time if your plane lands late.
• Bottled water, phone chargers and Wi-Fi on board.
• A written invoice, issued by a licensed French VTC operator.

Frequently asked questions

Other journeys out of Paris