Cloudy with a heavy breeze / High of 20° / 23’142 steps
We get into port around 7am. I’m awake at 6:30, excited to be back in a country that I speak the language. There’s the bonus that we’re back to a currency that doesn’t give me a heart attack buying a coffee. I disembark on a dark and cold dock. I fight my way against the wind to the city proper. I knew I wasn’t going to spend the day in Le Havre itself as my friends had so kindly described it as the ugliest port town. My alternate plan was going to a town an hour bus ride away, Étretat. Finding the station should have been easy, but I managed to follow the signs to the station parking instead. I eventually manage to get to the bus station and I even manage to find the ticket office. The bus ride actually goes by quickly and I’ve managed to get the bus with an average amount of tourists. When we get in to Étretat, I manage to walk quicker than my fellow tourists and get to the beach first. It’s not hugely difficult considering the average age of tourists at this time of the year is retirees.
The beach is cold, windy and smells of algue. The sun is shining and the waves sound like a proper ocean. I’m instantly in love. The only thing stopping me from putting my feet in is the fact I’m wearing stockings. I’m here for the beautiful cliffs so I pick the one closest to me and go up a set of steep stairs
and then the rest of the hill, stopping and taking pictures and selfies all the long. I prove my shirt true and fall into some thistles trying to get the most Instagram-able photo.
I go back the way I came, across the boardwalk and up a hectic pathway. The views from these cliffs are as breathtaking as the climb to get to them. After I get back down I play with the waves for a while, guessing where the wave is going to hit and then jumping back at the last minute. I definitely amused some of the looker ons.
I’m starting to get hungry so I finally head to the tourist office, on a mission for this town’s best crêperie. I get given two addresses, in case one is closed. The first restaurant recommended to me is closed so I go to the second one. I have an amazing crêpe and a glass of cider, for me the perfect meal in Normandie. There’s a bit of an issue with the card machine when I try to pay so I get to explore the town further while finding an ATM. I had started feeling unwell in the restaurant, my brain convinced I was still on a rocking boat and my stomach violently saying that I was not, so I head back to the buses.
The bus on the way back is slightly more full and as such I have some woman sit basically on top of me. Despite the fact a seat opens up next to her family and I look like I’m one rough bump away from showing the bus exactly what I had for lunch, she stays besides me so she can read her sisters messages over her shoulder and play with her niece who is jumping up and down on the seat in front of me. I see we’re almost at Le Havre beach so I escape. Staring at the sea makes me feel a lot better. I walk through the city, heading in the vague direction of a Primark I saw earlier to get myself a different jersey. I stumble across both a small park and the city hall on the way. No marriages today though. After my pit stop at the mall, I go back the weirdest possible way to the ship. I go through what feels like the whole of Le Havre’s industrial zone,and over a whole bunch of bridges that rotate. I do have a moment of paranoia every time I go over one, but I get back to the boat in one piece.