Le Havre: Étretat Cliffs & Honfleur with Norman Cider Tasting

The cliffs of Étretat are one of those places that genuinely surprise you — even when you've seen the photographs. The Porte d'Aval arch and the Aiguille needle to the west, the Porte d'Amont arch to the east, and between them a pebble beach and a village that has barely changed in a century. Climb the path above the western arch for the view across both formations — this is the angle Monet painted repeatedly from the beach below, and the perspective that makes clear just how dramatic this coastline really is. Below, the village is worth exploring: a covered market, a handful of good restaurants, and the curious Jardins d'Etretat on the hill above — a contemporary garden with the arch as its permanent backdrop.

Normandy is apple country. The bocage — the landscape of hedged fields and orchards that stretches inland from the coast — produces some of the finest cider and apple brandy in the world. Your tasting stop visits a local Norman producer for an introduction to the region's signature drinks: dry and sweet cider, apple juice and calvados, and calvados itself — aged in oak, complex, and nothing like the brandy you may have tried elsewhere. This is the flavour of Normandy in a glass. It takes twenty minutes to understand why the locals are proud of it.

Honfleur has been drawing artists since the 19th century — Boudin, Monet, and the painters of the Barbizon School all worked here, drawn by the quality of the light on the water and the extraordinary architecture of the Old Basin. The old harbour is ringed by tall, narrow houses with slate facades, their reflections doubling in the still water. Walk the quayside, climb to the wooden church of Sainte-Catherine — the largest timber church in France, built by shipwrights after the Hundred Years War — or simply find a table and order the local seafood. Honfleur rewards slow exploration. Three hours here feels exactly right.