An introvert's life in France #01 : 36 Hours in Upper Normandy, France

This is my first post and i would like to take this chance to introduce a few cute towns and villages around my area should you find yourself visiting upper Normandy or would like to add this region to your wanderlust list.

I am from Singapore and currently reside in France. I've been here for a year and 4 months. I love to explore and travel, and i would like to share my stories with the community. Hope you will enjoy it.

My friend, who now lives in Montreal visited me while vacationing in France with her boyfriend. It was a rare chance for us to meet up since now we both live far apart from each other. We threw in a mini trip around this region. It was literally 36 hours together including sleeping time!

Le Havre city is about 2 hours drive from Paris. We did a short tour of Le Havre city, followed by Étretat overnight. The next day, we drove to Deauville, Beuvron-En-Auge, Pont-l’Eveque, and finally Honfleur before we parted ways.

Should there be more time to spare, i would also suggest also adding another day to the itinerary forvisiting the city of Rouen, and consider the town of Giverny on the way back to Paris.

Here are some of the highlights:

Étretat – cute little seaside town famous for it’s white-washed cliffs and amazing sunset over the sea. This town could be really touristic during the summer months and a pain to get into. I’ve tried a few times during summer weekends and the cars parked all way few kms outside of the town meant chaos. Add to the list a very short fused temper of both Sam and me, we hardly made it into this town in Summer. During this trip, we went on a Monday and it was quiet, with good number of tourists for a nice atmospher however not anywhere near overwhelming. Climbing up to both sides of the cliffs were not a difficult , there are either steps or nice paths to walk on.

View from the hotel that we were staying at.

Accomodation: We stayed at Les Galets Bleu. We didn't expect it to be difficult to get an accomodation but before we knew it, most places were fully booked even though it was for a Monday evening. We managed to get 2 rooms at this hotel, clean and with seaviews at a reasonable price. We were pretty happy with it.
Our first choice was Dormy House, it has a paranomic view of the sea from each room however it was fully booked.

Antifer plage/beach – on the way from Le Havre to Étretat, worth stopping at this beach. It’s almost secluded. It’s a pebble beach framed by the cliffs of Étretat. To get here, there is a parking however it’s about a 25 mins walk amongst a nice stretch of forest (with well maintained path).

Deauville beach – Deaville is a posh town, a favorite amongst parisians. With it’s sandy beach, posh seaside resorts, and posh shopping streets. Deauville is pretty in her own way, although i felt that it was alittle too artificial.

Sand sand sand, we love sand beaches

Rose wine is a great choice for Summer for its lightness and since it’s chilled, it's perfect for summer.

Beuvron-En-Auge: Another pretty little village with it’s half timbered houses which are the characterisitcs of Norman traditional houses in this region. This village is situated along the cider route, which is a 40 km route famous for cider, calvados and pommeau producers.

Houses with such roofs are pretty rare now and they cost a bomb.

Pont-l’Eveque – is the name of a town but also the name of a cheese of this region. Unfortunately the cheese producers no longer operates in this town, but it’s still possible to visit nearby producers. We didn't do so as it was after 5pm and they were all closed.

Honfleur – The prettiest port in Normandy or maybe the whole of France?! This little port is famous for it’s historic houses along the port, Impressionist arts movement and small charming streets with half timbered houses.

Have you been to any of these places? Did you like them?

Seafood is really fresh and good in this region, give it a try if you have a chance!

This is the google map of the destinations mentioned in this post:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=14vTcjot1ANmqcoyx312HkRvyMLc&usp=sharing

Have you been to these villages, did you like them? I would like to hear your stories as well!