A day trip to Etretat...

The thing with moving to the north of France, is that the scenery will never deceive you; for someone who lived her whole life in south of France, which was highly influenced by Italian & Mediterranean culture, seeing another part of France is always fascinating.

Going to Etretat was a beautiful experience & if you ever have the chance to go there I highly recommend you to. The city is famous for its cliffs and the overall scenery; I loved the relaxing vibe the city gave out, and it made me feel this overwhelming (in a good way) feeling of inner peace, and tremendous gratefulness to be able to fully enjoy this moment.

---

We arrived at Etretat around 10pm which gave us plenty of time to figure out what we really wanted to do which ended up being, "chill & enjoy"

The city is so small, it's almost impossible to get lost or not see everything ; so the first thing we did was to explore the local shops, to buy presents for our family.

The ancient covered market, was full of these little typical Norman shops, where they sell salted caramel, butter biscuits and apple cider.

Walking around, opened our appetite and so we were on a quest to find a place to eat; as a student with a limited budget, eating at a fancy restaurant by the sea was obviously not on the list which I do regret now...but nonetheless our cravings were satisfied. Eating by the sea for 4€ is a bargain you can't refuse; a bag of chips, half a baguette & a salad were more than enough ! But if you're on the fancier side they were a lot of restaurants that served sea food products and so on, and if you're not feeling like having fish, there's some fast-food options too.

---

Once our stomachs were "full", and we had finished feeding the seagulls, it was time for us to hike our way up to one of the cliffs. Make sure to go to the tourist office and get a map, of the hiking roads. You can choose between two, and we choose the one that was the closest to us (lol) which is named La falaise d'Aval. Also make sure to wear good shoes, and to bring water cuz all that walking will get you dehydrated !

As crazy as it sounds, the higher we got the better the view seemed to get; In 25 years of life I've never seen anything quite like it, it felt like both my body and soul got cleansed by the sight of that spectacular view, and the pure sea air that gently blew on my face.

I am so grateful, that I had the chance to see all this beauty & greatness; it made me truly realize how lucky and blessed I am to have the life that I have and that ultimately what will stay with you is not how much money you made, or what type of clothes you wore but those moments that made you feel alive and grateful, moments where you tasted a bit of bliss and peace...

I wish you all get to experience this feeling at least once in your life, happiness is easy it's all around us, all we have to do is be present and thankful for the blessings that life offers us, as little as they might be.

Thank you Etretat, you were good. Love RZ xoxo

---

#travel #france #etretat #photography #trip #daytrip #normandy #sea #beautiful #europe #happy