Transport
Map

The road from Paris to Rouen and further to Le Havre is on highway. Unfortunately, we went on a holiday so the road was packed. To get to Etretat and Fecamp, two resorts on the Atlantic coast, you need to get off the highway and onto secondary roads. In the resorts there were insufficient parking places compared with the number of cars.

If you want to get to the Atlantic by train, you can get to Le Havre by Corail trains. There are some TGVs to Rennes and Brest, in Bretagne.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Food

Like anywhere in France, you can find good food and excellent wine just about anywhere. However, unlike other cities, the prices were quite high. As we were on a budget, we settled for supermarket food.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Sightseeing

Rouen, once the capital of Normandy, is a city famous mostly for it’s cathedral. The area around it is full of interesting old houses. What we couldn’t quite understand is why there was a 60s glass-and-concrete building doing just in front of the cathedral?

The city also has some interesting museums and other churches, but we skipped them due to the lack of time.

The small roads between Rouen and the seaside are worth the detour by themselves. Old stone houses and windmills are common in the region.

In Fecamp, there isn’t much to do besides sunbathing. Unfortunately, the beach is made of stones, so you should bring a mattress instead of a towel.

Etretat has, besides the rocky beach, some old WW2 defenses now eaten by the ocean when the tide is high. When the water is low, you can visit them and even go through a passage in the rocky cliffs to some “hidden” beaches. You can (if you’re in good shape) then climb up the cliff for a spectacular view of the coast.

Casinos are an important attraction in both cities, although the look a bit “rusty” and can’t be compared to the palaces of the Cote d’Azur.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Alternatives

The Mediteranean Sea is quite far from Paris compared to the ocean, but it remains nevertheless an important alternative.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Links

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