Once you see it, you will never forget the scenery, that is Etretat, France. I guess I'm not the only one. It is also a place where countless literary artists have written, painted, and been inspired. Étretat is a small town in the Seine-Maritime department of the Normandy region. The reputation of this place is definitely due to the eccentricity and beauty of the Falaise bundle and Damon cliffs along the Albatr coast.
While listening to the sound of the thick pebbles hitting the sea, the white cliffs surrounding the beach catches my eye. It was the elephant rock that Maupassant described as “an image of an elephant dipping its trunk into the sea.”
The most impressive scenery on this beach is the 'Elephant Rock' named by Maupassant. Made up of 85m limestone cliffs, it is called Falaise Bundle. What Maurice LeBlanc called ‘three gates connected to the cliff’ refers to the three elephant rocks. These three rocks are different in size and shape, so they are called mother, father, and baby elephant.
It especially attracted painters. Numerous painters such as Matisse, Boudin, Rousseau, and Delacroix painted this place. At the time, the famous painter Courbet, who was on the way to commercial success, was also working here, captivated by the cliffs of Etretat.
Etretat's marvelous colors and scenery were both the source of Maupassant's novel inspiration and an important object that established Monet's impressionist painting style.