July 2016 – France – Impressionism and Gourmet Travel – Chapters 1-3: Lunch at Etruta

July 2016 France Impressionism and the journey of gourmet
July 2016 France Impressionism and the journey of gourmet

Etretat 20160715-_MG_7407

July 15, 2016, about 1:00 p.m., weather: sunny

One of the most famous tourist destinations in Normandy

Departing from the minor but actually highly recommended Jumièges Monastery, we headed to Etrurta. You won’t need much explanation about this tourist attraction, which is in every guidebook.

From Jumièges, the route continued on public roads, so it took longer than expected, but it was a very pleasant drive in beautiful weather and with idyllic views of Normandy.

It has been 10 years since I started driving in Europe this year, and although I’ve gotten used to it, I still felt a bit nervous right after I left the airport because it was my first day, but thanks to this relaxing drive, I feel much better.

Heavy traffic, hard to find a parking space.

Well, the drive continued smoothly until we reached the town of Etruta, where we hardly saw any cars.

By the way, a few kilometers before our destination, street parking started to appear, and larger parking lots gradually appeared. Is it better to park here? No, it’s better to go further, I’ll have to walk a lot… Anyway, I decided to get as close to the destination as possible.

It took us more than half an hour to reach the center of the city from the entrance, but there was no parking at all in the center, and we barely found a parking space 500m away from the entrance.

Lunch in the city of Etrurta

I hadn’t eaten anything since I left Charles de Gaulle airport, so I decided to have lunch here. As usual, I searched for a good restaurant on TripAdvisor, and this time I decided to have lunch here.

お店の情報(TripAdvisor):Le Cours d'eau

We had such a great lunch here! Since it’s Normandy, we started with a light glass of cider.

Here’s the menu. Very rich! It looks like it, but if you look closely, it doesn’t look like it because there are so many letters lol. Maybe the reason I can think that way is because I can read better than before.

Well, I ordered the menu entrée et plat (starter and main course). For starters, I chose petite assiette de Moules marinières (steamed mussels in white wine) and Poisson du moment de la normandie (Normandy fish), which comes in small plates and changes daily.

Mussels are now commonly served in Belgian beer shops in Japan. The mussels here are a little more sour and have a stronger celery and parsley flavor. I prefer it this way, and it was very tasty.

As for the main dish, it was also delicious. The sauce full of butter and cream was excellent. The fish was also fresh and tasty without a fishy smell.

It was a bit expensive (compared to my experience) because it was in a tourist area, but all the food was delicious and I think I made a good choice.

There are so many people, it’s hard to get excited.

After lunch, we walked to the beach side…

Etretat 20160715-_MG_7413

There were a lot of people, and it was not as impressive as I thought it would be. If I climbed up to the cliff and went around to the other side, I might have been able to take some good pictures, but I didn’t have the energy to do that, or rather, if I was too particular about Etrurta, I wouldn’t be able to go to the museum in the next town, Le Havre, because of my tight schedule as usual.

Etretat 20160715-_MG_7407

ということで、結局、このサイドからの眺めのみの観光でエトルタ滞在は終了。エトルタはそこまで長居する価値はないかな、そう判断したのでした。まあ食事がとても美味しかっただけよしとしましょう。まあエトルタはル・アーブルからそう遠くないので、また行くことになろうかと思います。

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