A small seaside town clustered along a sweeping pebbly beach bookended by magnificent white cliffs that jut out from the water, Etretat, being just a two-hour drive from Paris, has long been a go ...

The impressionist masterpiece ‘The Cliff, Etretat, Sunset’ by Monet was being painted at 4.53pm on February 5 1883, academics say ...

The pebbled beach at Falaises, on France's Normandy coast, is known as Etretat Plage and its offshore needles and dramatic cliffs inspired the impressionist painters Boudin, Monet and Manet.