Étretat
Let me tell you about the morning I went to photograph the beautiful cliffs of Étretat, France. It was on a cold day in November 2017, when I visited the cliffs for the first time.
It's never easy to wake up for the Sunrise, especially because you never know how it's gonna be. In my case it was raining, and you always think in that moment:
Maybe I should go back to bed. It's cold and rainy.
But you also think that you are there for that opportunity so you give it a try anyway. So you take your rain gear, pack up the few things that are not already in the backpack and go.
You know you made the right choice when you enter the car and randomly, on the radio, there is really good music (I never listened before to Indochine).
After a 20 minutes drive I arrived to the little town of Étretat to park the car. I was very lucky to find the closest possible spot to the beginning of the path up to the cliffs.
I started walking and it was still almost completely dark, and still raining.
But the more you go up, the more light starts to appear around you and the less it rains. You start to realize how freaking amazing is the place you are right now. And the place is there all for you, no crowds, no tourists.
Just you and nature.
And it's beautiful, it's comfortable, you feel home. It's doesn't matter if it's cold or it's freezing. It doesn't matter if you slept 4 hours, you didn't eat and you are tired. You just feel you are in the right place.
There is a beautiful phrase by Guido Rey, an Italian alpinist, that says:
La Montagna è fatta per tutti, non solo per gli Alpinisti. Per coloro che desiderano il riposo nella quiete, come per coloro che cercano nella fatica un riposo ancora più forte.
That I guess can be translated to English more or less like:
Mountains are for everybody, not only for Alpinists. For those who desire to rest into tranquility, and for those who search into the exertion a rest that is even stronger.
Sometimes you are so lucky to really feel these words.
When I arrive at the top of the cliff I get the chance of taking some photos, given the rain is not strong as before. No crazy colors, but still an incredible landscape. And you feel so alive and so rewarded for the experience that simply you don't want to go back. Then, eventually you need to eat something so you have to go back.
From this I learned, once again, to never miss a sunrise. Especially in Étretat.
Mont Saint-Michel
My visit to Mont Saint-Michel was a completely different experience. I arrived there somewhat unprepared, photographically speaking.
Honestly only one thing was the same as Étretat. The weather. It's cold in Normandy! Coming from Sweden I expected to find relatively good weather, instead it was challenging. At sunrise the temperature was around 0 °C and it was windy throughout the day.
I found out that this was not a coincidence, weather in Normandy is known to be pretty bad, so much that they even make fun of it in the postcards!
Accessing Mont Saint-Michel is a bit challenging, it's definitely not photographer friendly. The road closes around 2-3 km from the town and you need a permit to go forward, or you need to have a reservation in a hotel or restaurant ahead. The free bus runs quite frequently, but even at 7 in the morning in November is completely full. And there is no free parking in a radius of 4-5 kilometers.
So for a casual photoshoot at sunrise or sunset it's a bit annoying to go through all of this.
The fact that the place is completely full of tourists even in November is a bit uninspiring in my opinion. You certainly don't get the same connection that you get in a wilder place like Étretat. Also, most of the landscape spots I would say are outside the burgh. From inside the town I was mostly interested in the reflections on the sand exposed by the low tide.
Despite the challenges, the place is undeniably photogenic. Here are some of my favorites of that day.
