{"id":14374,"date":"2026-07-27T21:40:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14374"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:40:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:40:05","slug":"epic-france-trip-etretat-day-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14374","title":{"rendered":"Epic France Trip – \u00c9tretat – Day 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I didn’t wake up too optimistic today. The third day after they got severely sunburned, my feet hurt like the fires of hell. Monet’s House and Garden the day before<\/a> had been hot and crowded – and today was supposed to be even hotter! Forecast: 103 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

But what I’d tentatively planned for the day was a road trip to \u00c9tretat. I decided to go anyway because:<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s a four-hour round trip, but my rental car is air-conditioned. (The one I rented in Germany two years ago was not, so I don’t take this for granted.) And it’s kind of fun to drive in France. A little stressful, but lovely to see the French countryside.<\/p>\n

Yes, it would be hot and I’d be outdoors, but the forecast for \u00c9tretat was only<\/em> 95! And since it’s on the coast, maybe there would be ocean breezes. [And yes! That was true!]<\/p>\n

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Besides, what was the alternative? Sitting in my hotel room? The other good part was that I didn’t have any set schedule, so I could turn back when I got tired and hot. Besides, the day before driving and walking hadn’t been too bad, once I got through the pain of putting on socks and shoes. (The shoes helped my feet not bend as much with each step.) I do have sandals with me, but I really didn’t want to risk the sun hitting my feet in any way, and besides, those sandals hurt the blisters on the bottoms of my feet (which were mostly but not completely better by then).<\/p>\n

So I set out. And yes, the drive was nice and only a little stressful. I have decided that I kind of hate the car beeping at me every time my speed tips over the speed limit. Especially going through villages where it changes every kilometer or so. Even worse is that at times, the steering would go a little wonky, it would beep much more loudly, and the dashboard would flash KEEP CONTROL!<\/p>\n

How<\/em> was I supposed to keep control? Hold onto the steering wheel more tightly? Eventually I decided the best option was to slow down when that went off, but it honestly kind of terrified me. Why was it doing that? How was I supposed to keep control other than steering it where I want to go? What was up with that?<\/p>\n

[Ha! I just googled it for that car, and it’s about the “Active Driver Assist” and the “Lane Centering Function.” No wonder it especially happened on curves. Maybe I veered a little out of center, and it was taking over?] Anyway, it never came on too long at a time, and definitely kept me awake.<\/p>\n

Once I got to \u00c9tretat, I missed a turn, but by a roundabout way found the parking lot where I’d planned to park – and got the last spot. Three of us were having trouble paying for parking, but then a French person walked up and showed us how it was done. I walked from there to the town square – and there was a little train taking people to the Jardins du \u00c9tretat! That sounded much much better than climbing the mountain.<\/p>\n

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On top, I didn’t see the entrance to the gardens. But there were paths along the cliffs, and I had a splendid time, walking along them, taking pictures of the English channel and the amazing cliffs that Monet used to paint. There was a strong wind blowing, and I actually felt cool, despite the sun beating down.<\/p>\n

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Oh, that was the one fly in the ointment today. Before I left, I put on copious amounts of sunscreen – and got it a little too close to my right eye. Once I started sweating in the car, that eye started stinging and watering. And that’s super persistent sunscreen, because it continued all day long! I finally used facewash on it when I got back to the hotel. So all day I was blinking, and trying to wipe water away from my eyes (hoping it would get the sunscreen) and blowing my nose.<\/p>\n

After I circled back down on the cliff path and was ready to walk back to the train stop, I found the entrance to the gardens. So I paid the entrance money and started wandering inside. The very first thing I did was find a booth that sold water and drank it down.<\/p>\n

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But then, as I was wandering around, I noticed that I’d started overheating. The gardens were sheltered from that sustaining ocean breeze, and it was now early afternoon. I made the executive decision to call it a day – and I’m proud of myself for that. I’d gotten the idea of the gardens, and I really didn’t want to end up with heat stroke.<\/p>\n

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So I climbed back up to the train stop and took the train back down into town. There was a pharmacy across from the town square, so I asked for something for sunburn – and a few hours later, the spray they gave me seems to be working pretty well.<\/p>\n

Then it was walk back to the car, then a two-hour drive back to the hotel. There was one place where it took me three tries to figure out where the GPS actually wanted me to go. It had said “Follow the road,” but the road forked 3 ways! I guess I had to try all three. But anyway, I made it back.<\/p>\n

And the hotel has a restaurant open all hours! I didn’t have to wait for 7 or 7:30 like the other hotel restaurants. So I got the Plat du Jour – fish of the day with vegetables. It was delicious. Then I grabbed some ice cream (melon and banana! Yum!) which I took to my room – where first thing, I took off my shoes and socks and sprayed them with the medicine from the Pharmacy.<\/p>\n

And I still have some time to relax in the cool room.<\/p>\n

So today restored my faith in my vacation, made me no longer tempted to try to get an earlier flight. Even if the next place is horrible, I’ve really only got two days left – then the day I fly home.<\/p>\n

Oh, I have tickets to an Equestrian Show on Thursday. I’d been hoping it’s air-conditioned. Well, I just received an email that they’re changing the time from 1:00 pm to 11:00 am because of the heat. So I guess not. But hopefully, in the morning, it won’t be too bad. Anyway, only a couple more days….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn’t wake up too optimistic today. The third day after they got severely sunburned, my feet hurt like the fires of hell. Monet’s House and Garden the day before had been hot and crowded – and today was supposed to be even hotter! Forecast: 103 degrees Fahrenheit. But what I’d tentatively planned for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-14374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-france2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14374"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14735,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions\/14735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}