Hiking - Étretat, Normandy, France (1)

Étretat is located in Normandy (French: Normandie) region in France.
Étretat has long white cliffs formed by sedimentary rocks of Limestone along the seashore.

First, we found one of the paintings of Étretat

drawn by Claude Monet 

near the entrance of the beach. 

We found several boats on the Étretat beach.

 

 

We can already see the most famous points of Étretat

 "Porte d'Aval (La falaise d'Aval)" from the beach.

↓

We walked to the left and went up the hill.

On the hill of Étretat.

 Walking course was very organized. Easy to walk and follow.

After walking a while, we found the bridge to go into the cliff.

Tomo is on the bridge to the cliff. Chouchou is inside the cliff.

We could enter this cliff.
There was nothing special inside the cliff. But it was fun.

We could see "Manneporte".

We were located between Manneporte & "Porte d'Aval (La falaise d'Aval)"

We could see the long white cliffs continuing further ahead.

The natural arch is called "Porte d'Aval (La falaise d'Aval)".

The pointed rock is called "Aiguille" or "The Needle".

Here is the most famous view points.
 

Claude Monet drew some paintings from this spot. 

For Tomo & Chouchou, Porte d'Aval looks like an elephant. :) 

Don't you think so??

To be continued ... Étretat (2) - right side from the entrance

Episode of Étretat

Tomo & Chouchou have been to Étretat several times but we have never felt bored. Because Étretat is very beautiful place, and depending on the weather, landscape changes and we can always discover something new.
French famous painter "Claude Monet" had drawn so many paintings at Étretat. It is very understandable when you see this scenery.

We can access to the beach from the downtown village of Étretat. As soon as you enter this entrance, you will find the cliffs on the left side and on the right side.

 

We came to Étretat for hiking this time. Hiking course is to follow the coast of Étretat. Our hiking course is to follow the coast. First we went up the left hill. Walking road was very organized. It was easy to follow. On the way to the main spot, we could enter the one of the cliffs. When we arrived to the highest place of the hill, we could see the long white cliffs continuing further ahead. Landscape was very beautiful. We also enjoyed the landscape from the most famous spot where we can see  "Porte d'Aval (La falaise d'Aval)" and "Aiguille". This natural arch and the pointed rock are formed by the wave, rain and wind by many years. We can feel the power of the nature a lot. Claude Monet drew some paintings from this spot. Tomo & Chouchou think this is the most beautiful spots in Étretat.

 

 

Tomo&Chouchou's advice for Étretat 

 

1)If you go to Étretat, the summer is the best time!

In Normandy, it rains a lot all year long but in summer, it's relatively sunny.

If you go to Étretat on sunny day, you can see shining blue or green ocean.

2)Walking course from the entrance to the main famous point to see Porte d'Aval and going back to the entrance is not so difficult for the elder people to walk. This course is enough to enjoy Étretat.

 

3)After watching main view point, you can go back the same way to the entrance. Or you can continue to walk to the longer hiking course. If you continue to longer hiking course, you can find long tunnel in the cliff. You can also entered this tunnel. There is a hidden beach in Etretat. So explore Étretat in your way !

The Isle of Pines [Île des Pins], New Caledonia (2)

Walk to the Piscine Naturelle from the restaurant.

  

↓

across the Ouro river (La rivière Ouro)

 

↓

Keep walking ... then

the Natural pool [Piscine Naturelle]
Piscine Naturelle was in the hidden place.

We could see fish swimming without snorkeling 

as the Natural Pool was very transparent.!

White sand beach & transparent water were splendid ! 

 

↓

Go back to the restaurant

The traditional meal "Chicken-Coconut".

Local woman prepared the meal by hand.

She steamed these preparations in the soil. 

It was the traditional way of cooking.

 

↓

We waited for our guide to pick us up.

 

 

↓

Our guide dropped us...

There were so many powerful low trees around here.
We found kinda wood stage.

↓

Walk along the bay

Kanumera bay

People were swimming in Kanumera beach.

People were snorkeling in Kanumera bay.

↓

Keep walking along the bay

↓

We arrived at the ferry terminal and boarded.

We could see the wonderful sunset on the ferry.

↓

Go back to Nouméa

←  Read back to the Isle of Pines [Île des Pins], New Caledonia (1)

Episode of the Isle of Pines [Île des Pins]

Tomo&Chouchou quickly put swimming suits near the restaurant, then headed to the Natural pool [Piscine Naturelle]. Piscine Naturelle was in the hidden place.
We need to pass the Ouro river [La rivière Ouro] and walk a lot.
As soon as we arrived at the beach, we were surprised to see such a beautiful beach! We could see fish swimming without snorkeling.
It was the first time for us to see such a beautiful beach with white sand and transparent water! We took advantage of this opportunity and enjoyed this beautiful beach a lot.
After enjoying the beach, we went back to the restaurant to eat traditional meal.
When we arrived at the restaurant, local woman was preparing the meal by hand.
She was preparing something covered with the banana leaves. She covered her preparations with leaves and soils, then she steamed them. It was the traditional way of cooking. It took time to cook. When we were served our dish on the table, we were surprised with the volume of the dish! It was chicken and yam with coconuts. It was good. The taste matches up with the tropical weather and scenery. After eating, we relaxed ourselves a bit. 

Then, we realized that it was almost the meeting time with our guide, so we went to the entrance of this resort and waited for our guide. However our guide didn't come to pick us up on time... :-( We had waited for thirty minutes more but she didn't show up. We couldn't miss our last ferry to go back to Nouméa so we decided to go back to the restaurant to ask if they can contact our tour guide.
Unfortunately people in the restaurant didn't know the contact of our guide.
Then, 30 minutes later, our guide suddenly appeared. Tomo & Chouchou were angry because she didn't come to pick us up at promised time. We showed our anger but she never apologized and she kept ignoring us. We regreted that we couldn't have expressed ourselves well in French...
We were supposed to send off until the ferry terminal but she dropped us on the way to the terminal. We didn't know where we were...But it was nice place. There were so many powerful low trees around. We could feel the power of nature. Then, we walked through the road lined with many trees. Nature calmed down our anger. 

We decided to walk along the bay because we didn't know the way to the ferry terminal. Then, we arrived at the beautiful beach "Kanumera bay" unexpectedly.
People were snorkeling or swimming there. A cute woman were waving a hand toward us. Chouchou thought she was waving to himself so he waved a hand to her. But, actually she was waving a hand to someone else. :-)
Afterward we walked along the sea and we reached the area where there were many coconut trees. It seemed we could ride a boat around there. There were many seagulls too.
Luckily we found a ferry terminal near there. We succeeded to arrive at the ferry terminal within the time, so we didn't need to miss the last ferry.
For the return, we can see the wonderful sunset on the ferry. We could watch all the change of the sun and the color of the sky from the beginning to the end of the sunset.
In the island [île des pin] , we could see the splendid nature that we can never see in the city. It was the power spot to feel the nature!

Tomo&Chouchou's advices for New Caledonia

1) If you go to New Caledonia, we advise you to visit the isles around the main island. The isles have much more beautiful sea and forest !

2) If you are very relaxed person or if you want to forget about the time, New Caledonia is a good place. People are very relaxed and slow. We advise you not to have any plans there.

3) We advice you to find a good local guide from your country or drive by yourself in the island if you can.

Relating article

-> Nouméa

Sugarloaf Mountain [Pão de Açúcar] & Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro

the Sugarloaf Mountain [Morro do Pão de Açúcar]  is a rock peak on a peninsula between Praia de Urca and Praia Vermelha.  

Pão de Açúcar means Sugarloaf.
It was named because the shape of the peak resembled to sugarloaf.

the Sugarloaf Mountain [Portuguese: Pão de Açúcar] 

 

 

To go up the Sugarloaf Mountain [Pão de Açúcar], 

we need to take two glass-walled ropeways.

the entrance of ropeway [Portuguese: teleférico].
 

 

↓

First ropeway ascends to the Urca hill 

[Portuguese: Morro da Urca] (altitude: 220m). 

 

↓

 

second ropeway to the top of 

the Sugarloaf mountain [Pão de Açúcar].

the view of Sugarloaf mountain from Urca Hill.

 

 

↓

 

 The tour guide drove to the next sightseeing spot.

 

↓

 

Copacabana beach [Portuguese: Praia do Copacabana]

 

Episode of Sugarloaf Mountain [Pão de Açúcar]

Tomo & Chouchou booked local Japanese tour guide to look around Rio de Janeiro. Our tour guide drove to the Sugarloaf Mountain[Pão de Açúcar] between Praia de Urca and Praia Vermelha. We got off the car and we took ropeways [teleférico]. Ropeway was very big. It can carry 65 passengers.
To reach the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain [Morro do Pão de Açúcar], we needed to take two ropeways. First ropeway ascends to the Urca hill [Morro da Urca] (altitude: 220m). From the Urca hilll, we could see big Sugarloaf Mountain very close. Then, we needed to take the second ropeway to go up to the top of Pão de Açúcar (altitude: 396m). It was thrilling to see our approach to Pão de Açúcar from the window of the ropeway. Unfortunately, on that day, we couldn't see the top of the Sugarloaf Mountain because of the fog. According to our local guide's stroy, the area around the summit of Pão de Açúcar tends to be foggy, so it's always difficult to see the beautiful summit clearly.
From the top of the Sugarloaf mountain, we could see the Atlantic Ocean, Guanabara Bay [Baía de Guanabara], yachts, white-sand beach, high building along the beach etc. We could see the typical scenery of Rio de Janeiro.

Tomo loves Brazilian music, especially Bossa Nova is Tomo's favorite. Tomo wanted to visit Praia do Copacabana & Praia de Ipanema because those were often sung. So Tomo asked the guide to take us to the beach. Our tour guide only accepted us to see the beach from the window of the car because there were many incidents on the beach. But Tomo really wanted to take a photo on the beach, so we asked strongly to our guide. Our tour guide finally allowed us to go to Copacabana beach only for 5 min. Even it was 5 minutes, we were super happy to walk on the Copacabana beach. It was the great moment to feel the Bossa Nova song on the famous beach.



Sugarloaf mountain ropeway/Teleférico Pão de Açúcar

Each ropeway takes 3 minutes. Total 6 minutes.
Open: 8am to 8pm (Departure: every 20 minutes)


Relating articles

* Christ the Redeemer [Cristo Redentor]

* Estádio do Maracanã [Maracanã Stadium]

* Downtown "Centro" in Rio de Janeiro