Étretat

Nothing says summer holidays like a road trip to the beach. My road tripping soul sister Talysa flew over from Australia and we rented a zippy red car to drive up to Normandy. Yes, I know, Normandy again - but this time my journey was eastbound as I had been longing to see the cliffs of Étretat.

To be honest, our road trip from Paris was a bit of a disaster. We stopped by Monet's gardens in Giverny to be faced with hour-long queues (which we refused to wait for). We stayed overnight in Rouen, finding last minute accomodation in the city outskirts. And when we arrived in Étretat, it was almost impossible to get a carpark. This sleepy town of 2,000 inhabitants had grown overnight into 20,000 for what felt like the first real day of summer in Europe.

The tall white cliffs really stole my breath away. You can spend the whole day here walking along the cliff top for miles and back again. We found a great spot with a view and set up our own little picnic of baguettes, foie gras and camembert.

As beautiful as the beach looked, we couldn't help but look quizzically at all the French beachgoers. How were they possibly comfortable lying and walking on large pebbles?! That's something that sandy-beached Australians will never understand.

Photos taken by Talysa et moi in July 2016.