I’ve set my intentions for 2017 at the beginning of the year and while I’ve failed terribly at buying myself flowers so far (the first and only bouquet I got this year is a bunch of peonies from last week from my mom), there’s one thing I’ve managed to tick off my list and it’s to leave Paris and discover somewhere in France I’ve never been to.

My travel buddy (a long time friend) and I took the road to the Baie de Somme (or Bay of Somme), a region from the North of France that’s on the west coast. It’s only a 2,5-hour drive from Paris to get to the seaside!
Our flat couldn’t be closer to the beach and although we didn’t come for a little dip – too cold! – it was incredible to wake up to an amazing view of the cliffs. We stayed in Ault, a small city known mainly for its cliffs à la Broadchurch, and it was right in between the others cities we had planned to visit.

Ault

Le Hourdel

A little up north from Ault is Le Hourdel, from the town of Cayeux-sur-mer, with its old port. It’s apparently the best place to see the popular seals from the region. We’ve managed to see a couple of seals from afar with our cameras completely zoomed in! It’s clearly best to have a pair of binoculars.

The low tide allowed for a pretty muddy (and kinda moody!) scene that I really enjoyed photographing. I didn’t enjoy the far too long walk from there to the World War II bunker with the rain in my face quite as much but it was worth every pebble I had to set foot on! We returned to the car by talking a nice little road and the rain had even stopped by then.

Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme

Continuing our visit up north, we stopped at Saint-Valéry-Sur-Somme, a typical town with beautiful mansions, cute crooked streets and shops that make it a little more touristy than the cities we had seen so far.

Le Crotoy

I didn’t like Le Crotoy as much as I did the previous city because it didn’t feel very special in my opinion, but there were some cool local shops and I even bought the local speciality from a bakery: the gâteau battu (beaten cake) which very much tastes like brioche.

We couldn’t visit the Marquenterre, a national park from the region as we only had one full day but it’s supposed to be really nice.

Le Tréport

Before going back to Paris, we spent the morning in Le Tréport to admire the cliffs for the last time. It was so great to be able to see them from different point of views: down on the beach, and up there from above. There’s a free cable car that allows you to get to the top of the cliffs and it was such a stunning view!