France / Normandy
Étretat
Étretat is a coastal resort area in Normandy, France. Its longest mapped beach stretches about 1.1 km and has a pebble surface. The sea averages 18.5 °C in August, its warmest month, and 7.8 °C in February; it never reaches 21 °C on average.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
The sea peaks at 18.5 °C in August. Most swimmers find water below 20 °C cold; a wetsuit is common here.
Average wind speed at 10 m reaches 7.9 m/s in January, the windiest month.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Services in the resort
- 42Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 12Public toilets
- –Showers
- 2Drinking water
- 20Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 33Hotels & guesthouses
- 1Campsites
- 6Grocery shops
- 9Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 1Pharmacies & clinics
- 2Cash machines
- 12Viewpoints
- 3Historic sites
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 37 restaurants, 1 café, 3 bars and 1 fast-food outlet. Accommodation: 33 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Bathing water quality
The official EU bathing-water site “Etretat-Plage”, 210 m from the beach centre, was rated Excellent for the 2025 season. It was Excellent in 9 of its 11 classified seasons since 2015.
- 2015Excellent
- 2016Excellent
- 2017Good
- 2018Good
- 2019Excellent
- 2020Excellent
- 2021Excellent
- 2022Excellent
- 2023Excellent
- 2024Excellent
- 2025Excellent
Source: European Environment Agency, EU Bathing Water Directive assessments · national site profile. Classes are based on four seasons of bacteriological sampling.
Month by month
October at Étretat
Beach-day index 2.4/10 · France median 4.9
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 8.6 °C | 7.8 °C | 8.1 °C | 9.7 °C | 12.0 °C | 14.7 °C | 17.1 °C | 18.5 °C | 17.8 °C | 15.9 °C | 13.1 °C | 10.4 °C |
| High °C | 8° | 8° | 9° | 12° | 14° | 17° | 19° | 19° | 18° | 15° | 12° | 9° |
| Low °C | 5° | 5° | 6° | 8° | 10° | 13° | 15° | 16° | 15° | 12° | 9° | 6° |
| Rain mm | 85 | 70 | 60 | 44 | 55 | 50 | 55 | 66 | 53 | 89 | 100 | 101 |
| Cloud % | 77 | 74 | 68 | 63 | 67 | 66 | 63 | 63 | 61 | 69 | 75 | 76 |
| Wind m/s | 7.9 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 6.8 | 7.4 | 7.8 |
| Daylight h | 8.6 | 10.1 | 11.8 | 13.7 | 15.3 | 16.3 | 15.9 | 14.5 | 12.7 | 10.9 | 9.1 | 8.2 |
| Record high/low | 13°/-2° | 14°/-3° | 16°/-3° | 19°/1° | 22°/6° | 27°/9° | 29°/12° | 30°/13° | 25°/10° | 22°/5° | 17°/2° | 14°/-1° |
| Beach index | 1.9 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 3.9 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 1.8 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
No month reaches 5.5 on the beach-day index; the best is August at 4.7/10, held back mainly by cool air (highs of 19 °C) and cold water (18.5 °C).
At its warmest the water here is 3.6 °C cooler than the France median for August (22.1 °C).
Across the year the sea averages 12.8 °C, cooler than 81% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
December is the wettest month (101 mm) and April the driest (44 mm); the yearly total is about 830 mm.
Daylight runs from 8.2 hours in December to 16.3 hours in June; in mid-August the sun rises at 06:48 and sets at 21:19 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces north-west (320°). Open water fills about 31% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
The sun sets over the sea in March–September; in mid-June it goes down at 22:07 local time on a bearing of 309°.
Straight out to the north-west the next coast is roughly 120 km away, so waves are mostly wind-driven sea rather than ocean swell.
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 13 m deep and 20 m at 3 km. Behind the beach the ground is about 33 m above sea level 500 m inland and 45 m at 1.5 km.
Within 1 km, the land is 54% tree cover, 27% grassland and 10% built-up land (satellite land-cover map, 2021): a largely natural setting. Water makes up 34% of that circle.
- Tree 54%
- Grass 27%
- Built 10%
- Crop 8%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deauville Normandie airport Deauville | DOL | 38.2 km | south |
| Caen Carpiquet airport Caen | CFR | 75.8 km | south-west |
| Beauvais-Tillé airport Beauvais | BVA | 141 km | east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 9 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station Vélo-Rails Étretat Pays de Caux (1.0 km) and 20 mapped car parks within 1 km.
6 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 8.9K residents); within 30 km there are 44 (about 317.1K).
Photos
From above
Around the beach
Attractions & museums
- Musée du patrimoine d'Etretat museum 190 m E
- Maison Maurice Leblanc museum 340 m SE
- Le Clos Arsène Lupin museum 350 m SE
- La Chambre des Demoiselles attraction 630 m W
- Vélo-Rails Étretat Pays de Caux attraction 1.0 km E
Historic sites
- Monument de l'Oiseau Blanc monument 510 m NE
- Monument Nungesser et Coli monument 530 m NE
- Le Château des Aygues castle 780 m E
Nature
- Trou à l'Homme cave entrance 610 m W
- La Chambre des Demoiselles cave entrance 630 m W
- l'Aiguille peak 780 m W
Islands in view
- L'Aiguille 760 m W
Campsites
- Centre de Vacances CCE-SNCF 770 m E
Map and nearby beaches
Loading map…
Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 10.8 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature r12029990; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Water body, status and length: Wikidata (CC0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons, author and licence under each image.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2C_30UYA_20250825_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site FRD2276254M076383).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 8.1K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.