This part of the coast is called the Cote d’Albatre (Alabaster coast) in the Caux region. It is about a 130km stretch from Dieppe towards Le Havre. It has some beautiful white cliffs interspersed with valleys and cute little villages.

The cliffs are quite stunning and the beaches are very rocky. There is some sand when the tide is out.

We stopped in to visit a very old church, the Chapelle de Val, that is in dire need of being restored. We met a delightful group of ladies who are trying to save the church and raise money and they gave us a tour.

The earliest parts of the church date from around the 9th century and then there are Roman, Gothic and Renaissance elements. It was originally the chapel for a leprosy colony and served three villages around it. Louis the XIV decided this was an expensive way to look after lepers and said that they should be attached to hospitals which makes sense. The church was in use in the 1960s but a myth was circulating that there was buried treasure so treasure hunters have ransacked and destroyed a lot of the inside. It was very dark inside so no photos.

To raise money they were selling works of one of the members of the association who is an artist. They also signed me up as a member!

We continued in to Saint-Valery- en- Caux which is a little bigger and has a large port with pleasure boats.

The drawings from the artist that Mum and Dad bought were of local villages. We had already visited one of them so we went to find the other. This picture includes a Colombier ( dove house).