White Cliffs of Normandy

Normandy's White Cliffs are associated mostly with the sea arches and other features at Etretat, but the cliffs are actually far more extensive, beginning at Ault, perhaps a hundred miles further up the coast. Not as high as the white cliffs across the channel, although geologically the same, they are punctuated with fishing villages and resorts all along the way, where rivers have worn down the limestone to make harbors and beaches. From Le Touquet we drove through St. Valery and around the Bay of the Somme to Ault, where the cliffs begin.

Street scene in St. Valery; the place seemed mobbed but did
not seem all that interesting...oh, William the Conqueror
departed from near here, 1066...

The Bay

From the flat estuary and beaches you drive up-hill and gaze
back to where you've been

And then look left and see the cliffs extending as far as you can
see

Thus

And thus

Ault cathedral; all the older construction in these
parts has flint embedded in it, just like the south
of England; flint everywhere in the chalk