Your Paris hotel or apartment
Your chauffeur is at the door at the hour you choose. For Etretat we usually recommend an early start, and we agree everything the evening before.
Alabaster Coast
White chalk cliffs, three natural arches and a needle of rock standing in the sea. It is a long drive for a day trip and worth every kilometre — and you will not be doing the driving.
From central Paris, one way: Executive Eco from €390 · Premium Van from €615 · tolls included
Instant price
Tell us where you are going and the price appears straight away. Nothing is charged online. A real person confirms your transfer in writing, usually within the hour.
Fixed price, agreed before you travel.Child seats, tolls, meet and greet and waiting time all included.
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Etretat is a small resort on the Normandy coast that happens to sit between two of the most photographed cliffs in Europe. The chalk here has been cut by the sea into three arches and a seventy-metre needle, and the shapes are so improbable that they look invented. Monet painted them repeatedly, Courbet before him, and Maurice Leblanc set the Arsene Lupin novel L'Aiguille Creuse inside the needle itself.
The town is a single crescent of shingle beach with a promenade, some good seafood and a clifftop chapel at either end. Everything is done on foot once you arrive: up the steps to the Falaise d'Aval on the west side for the classic view of the arch and the needle, or up the other side to the Falaise d'Amont for the chapel and the monument to the aviators Nungesser and Coli. It is a walking destination, and a windy one, so bring shoes that grip and a layer more than you think you need.
Any address in Paris or the Paris region, and all three airports.
Your chauffeur is at the door at the hour you choose. For Etretat we usually recommend an early start, and we agree everything the evening before.
Beauvais is the closest of the three to the Normandy coast. We track the flight, meet you in arrivals and take your luggage with you if you are continuing on.
Versailles, the western suburbs or a hotel already in Normandy. Etretat is also a natural stop on a longer coastal route.
We will not put a single Paris to Etretat distance on this page, because it would be wrong for most readers. Etretat is north-west on the Channel coast. A guest starting at Beauvais has a meaningfully shorter journey than one starting at Charles de Gaulle, and Orly is further again. One printed figure cannot serve all three.
The calculator above measures the journey you are actually making. It asks the routing service for the real road route between your pickup point and Etretat and shows the distance in kilometres and the driving time before any price. As a broad guide only, central Paris to Etretat outside peak hours is usually somewhere around two and a half hours by the A13.
That makes it one of the longer day trips from Paris, and it is worth being honest about that: it is a full day, roughly five hours of driving in total, with four or five hours on the coast. Many guests prefer to combine it with Honfleur or Rouen, or to stay overnight rather than return the same evening.
The Falaise d'Aval is the view everybody comes for: the Porte d'Aval arch with the Aiguille standing beyond it. Steps and a path climb from the western end of the beach; the walk to the top takes perhaps twenty minutes at a gentle pace and the ground is uneven near the edge.
The Falaise d'Amont, on the eastern side, holds the chapel of Notre-Dame de la Garde and a monument shaped like an aircraft wing to Nungesser and Coli, who were last seen from this cliff attempting the Atlantic crossing in 1927. The view back across the bay towards the arch is the better of the two.
The Jardins d'Etretat sit on the eastern cliff: a contemporary sculpture garden of clipped topiary looking out over the sea, striking and slightly strange. Down in the town there is the covered market hall, the shingle beach with its fishing huts, and a row of restaurants where the moules and the sole are the obvious order. At very low tide it is sometimes possible to walk through the Porte d'Aval to the next bay, but the tide comes back quickly and it should not be attempted casually.
A suggestion only. Your chauffeur follows your plan and you can change it at any point.
An early departure matters on this route. Your chauffeur collects you at the hotel and takes the A13 west.
Dropped near the seafront. Straight up the Falaise d'Aval while the light is still good and before the coaches arrive.
Seafood on the front, then the chapel side and the gardens if you want them.
Honfleur is a natural stop on the way home for an hour at the old harbour. Otherwise back to Paris for the evening.
Tell us the ages when you book and the correct seat or booster travels with the car at no extra charge. On a long drive it makes a real difference.
Two and a half hours each way is a long stretch for young children. Your chauffeur will stop where and when you ask; there is no timetable to keep.
The clifftop paths are unfenced in places and the drop is severe. It is a wonderful walk with older children and one to think carefully about with toddlers.
On a route this length the per-kilometre rate is what applies rather than the minimum fare. Prices are always calculated on real road distance from the routing service, never on a straight line, and tolls and fuel are included.
Usually around two and a half hours from central Paris outside peak hours. From Beauvais it is shorter. Use the calculator above with your exact pickup address for a routed distance and time rather than an average.
It is a long day but a very popular one. Roughly five hours of driving in total leaves four or five hours on the coast, which is enough for both cliffs and lunch. If that sounds tight, consider staying overnight or pairing it with Honfleur instead.
Yes, and both are natural additions on the way back. Honfleur adds around an hour to the day. Send us the shape of the trip and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.
More than at most destinations. The cliff paths are steep in places, uneven, and exposed to the wind. Proper shoes matter. The beach, the market hall and the restaurants are all flat and easy.
Late spring to early autumn for the weather, though the cliffs are dramatic in winter light and the town is far quieter. Sunset on the eastern cliff in summer is exceptional.
Yes, and for Etretat that is the normal arrangement. We quote a private day hire including the waiting time rather than two separate one-way transfers.
Yes. The quoted figure for your route and vehicle is what you pay. There is no meter and no surcharge for traffic.
Yes. We run private transfers across the whole region and long distance transfers throughout France, so a one-way to Deauville, Bayeux or Mont-Saint-Michel is straightforward.
Get an instant price on the real road distance, or tell us what else you want to see on the way and we will build the day around it.