Etretat, Normandy

Tags

cliffs, Etretat, postaday2015

  
Etretat was the next and last stop before we returned back to my cousin’s house. I wish that we had gotten there early in the morning so that I could have taken better pictures. We, the three of us, were frustrated taking these shots against the light because to the naked eye, the beauty of the arch and the needle formation doesn’t hinge on where the sun lies in the sky, our eyes are far superior to any camera lens. 

Here in the following pictures, you are seeing Etretat’s beauty dimmed by shadow, however there are two pictures  showing the drama of the cliff-face in full sun, the opposing cliffside to Etretat, so if you just transpose that image onto the cliff at Etretat, then you will see what I was seeing that day.

   
 
   
 
   
   
As you can see in the picture right above, this was my vantage point for picture taking, as I was checking my pictures, I noticed that you can see people on top of the cliffs, they look like ants, I thought it was cute.

I am not a photographer, but I can easily see why photographers take reams of pictures, you want to capture the essence of what you are perceiving at that moment, from every angle so that you can translate your impression to others.

I still get amazed by how well my iphone takes pictures, I haven’t even enhanced any of these pictures, the closeups are from the “zoom” that’s it, these are as I took them on Spetember 2nd, just over a week ago. My time in France was way too short.

This is what they mean by location, location, location

Tags

cliffs, coastline, postaday2015

  
This house lies in the valleuse de Vaucottes, which literally means the valley of Vaucottes, when I googled Vaucottes to find out more about it, I was led to surf reports so I am assuming that surfers enjoy this area quite a bit. Can you imagine waking up every morning to have breakfast and looking out your window to this glorious sight?

I suppose in the winter it must have a different look, maybe not as inspiring as it is when you have the full force of a summer sun warming your bones, the sea and the land around you.

We had just left Yport when I took this picture, we were on our way to Etretat which I will show you tomorrow. This coastline is known as the Albaster coastline, an apt nickname I would say.

  

Yport, another sleepy fishing town

Tags

cliffs, France, postaday2015, seaside, Yport

   
   
You can see Fecamp in the back of this picture right above, the coastline is magnificent in my opinion, little dots of people communed together basing their lives on the sea and its bounty, novels have been written on this most basic of stories, man versus the sea.

Yport has these tiny houses that are so adorable, beautifully kept and tidy, you can see the pride in their immaculate upkeep.

   
   
The cliffs, for me, were the focal point, their savage beauty, cut by the power of the sea, occassionally brought down by gravity’s pull, I saw evidence of cliff slides on the beach and some had lost their lives when the cliff face pulled away from the top and crashed onto the beach, making for dramatic and tragic imagery.

   
   

Fecamp a fishing port

Tags

cliffs, Normandy, postaday2015

   
 
As you will see later with more pictures, Fecamp is a charming port town on the English Channel with breathtaking views of the sea and cliff faces that I would argue rival the white cliffs of Dover over in England. Its history is long and illustrious, from early man to Gallo-Roman to Norman to the English to incorporation with French Royalty and each important date thereafter in modern French history; regardless it has maintained its idyllic facade of a quaint and charming fishing town, easy to fall in love with as you will see.

   

  

  

  

  

  

 Our daytrip to the upper Normandy coast was amazing, the weather was perfect, interesting skies creating the perfect backdrop for our photographs, a bracing breeze off the sea reminding us that we were in seafood country. We tried to eat lunch right at the port, but too many people had the same idea so we went further into town and had excellent mussels a la Normande, a lovely aromatic cream sauce which I highly recommend if you are ever given the choice next time you order mussels at your local seafood restaurant.

I can still smell the sea if I close my eyes and let my mind wander back to that day.