Coordinates: 49°42′26″N 0°12′27″E / 49.707223°N 0.2075°E
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Commune of Étretat |
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| Location | |
  Étretat
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| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Region | Haute-Normandie  |
| Department | Seine-Maritime  |
| Arrondissement | Le Havre |
| Canton | Criquetot-l'Esneval |
| Intercommunality | Canton of Criquetot-l'Esneval |
| Mayor | Franck Cottard (2008–2014) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 0–102 m (0–330 ft) (avg. 8 m/26 ft) |
| Land area1 | 4.07 km2 (1.57 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 1,564 (2006) |
| - Density | 384 /km2 (990 /sq mi) |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 76254/ 76790 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
Étretat is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.
Contents |
Geography
A tourist and farming town situated 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Le Havre, at the junction of the D940, D11 and D139 roads. Located on the coast of the Pays de Caux area.
Heraldry
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The arms of Étretat are blazoned : |
Population
| 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1379 | 1472 | 1525 | 1577 | 1565 | 1615 | 1640 | 1564 |
| Starting in 1962: Population without duplicates | |||||||
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The cliffs
Étretat is best known for its cliffs, including a famous natural arch. These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet, and were featured prominently in the 1909 Arsène Lupin novel The Hollow Needle by Maurice Leblanc.
Two of the three famous arches seen from the town are the Porte d'Aval, and the Porte d'Amont. The Manneporte is the third which cannot be seen from the town.
The GR 21 long-distance hiking path (Le Havre to Le Tréport) passes through the town.
Notable people
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).[1] 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.[2] 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 Edouard Manet and a keen collector of art, Faure did amateur paintings of the local area, including the scenic cliffs.
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 WWI war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli had been attempting to make the first non-stop flight from Paris to New York, 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 then destroyed during World War II, during the German occupation. A new and taller monument was constructed in 1963, along with a nearby museum.[3]
Galleries
 Johan Jongkind, The Arbour of Étretat, 1852 |
 Courbet, The Cliff at Étretat after the Storm, 1869–70 |
 Claude Monet, The Cliffs at Étretat, 1885 |
 Claude Monet, Étretat, gate of Aval: fishing boats leaving the harbour, 1885 |
 Henry Bacon, Étretat 1890 |
 Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, Étretat |
 Claude-Samuel Lévine, The needle of Étretat, 1983 |
 Marie-Claire Lefébure, The boats on the beach, 1999 |
 Étretat beach |
 The main Aval cliff, its arch and the needle |
 Beach, as seen from the Amont side, in the evening |
 Amont Door from the beach |
 The Needle of Arsène Lupin |
 Chambre des Demoiselles |
 Panorama of cliffs at Étretat |
See also
References
- ^ Goddard, N. G. (1952), "Maupassant and the English", French Studies VI: 35–40
- ^ History of La Guillette
- ^ Schofield, Brian (2002-09-22). "Hop over: five-day drives just across the Channel - France". Sunday Times.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Étretat |
- Official site of Etretat (French)
- Alternative site of Etretat(French)
- Website of an artist living in Etretat (French)
- Artistic photos of Etretat and cliffs
- Video: A tour in a boat to see the cliffs from the sea (French)
- Video: a video clip by an Etretat artist - The cliffs at the beginning of day (French)
- 3D view from Google Earth of part of Etretat's cliffs (French)
- Étretat on the Quid website (French)
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