Étretat tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 06:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Europe/Paris local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sun 17 May (range 7.3m). Next neap on Fri 22 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Étretat is a small town on the Alabaster Coast of Seine-Maritime, defined by two chalk cliff formations flanking a shingle beach: the Falaise d'Aval to the southwest and the Falaise d'Amont to the northeast. The Falaise d'Aval includes a natural arch and a detached chalk needle (L'Aiguille) that stands approximately 70 metres above the low-water mark; the arch is wide enough to sail a small boat through at high water and to walk through on foot at low water. These formations have been photographed and painted so many times that the actual scale comes as a surprise to first-time visitors. Mean spring tidal range at Étretat is approximately 8.0 metres — among the largest on the Normandy coast and substantially larger than most visitors from Mediterranean or North Sea coasts expect. The shingle beach, which is roughly 400 metres wide at low water, compresses to a narrow strip at high water directly below the cliffs. The transition matters: the arch at the foot of the Falaise d'Aval, and the broad chalk platforms around the base of both cliff formations, are accessible on foot only around low water. At mid-tide on the flood, the water is already covering the platforms. At high water on a spring tide, the sea comes to the base of the cliffs and there is no foreshore. The practical rule for visiting the arch is to time arrival within 2 hours either side of low water, and to watch the direction of the tidal current on the way back across the beach. The cliff geology is active. Chalk is mechanically weak and Étretat's cliffs erode continuously — chalk falls occur regularly, sometimes with no preceding warning. The official guidance from the local municipality is to keep clear of the cliff base and not to linger directly below the chalk face. Signs at the beach reiterate this. The visible erosion notch at the cliff foot in several locations shows where wave action at high water undercuts the cliff. Monet painted the Étretat cliffs in a series of canvases produced during the 1880s, working at different states of light and tide to show the formations in contrasting conditions. The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre (30 km south) holds several of these works. The town itself — a planned seaside resort from the Second Empire period, with the covered market (Les Halles) and the casino at the cliff base still intact — is compact and manageable on foot. The clifftop walks in both directions from the town are the primary appeal alongside the beach: the path to the Falaise d'Amont with its chapel and the replica of the Nungesser-Coli biplane (the ill-fated L'Oiseau Blanc, which departed Paris for New York in 1927 and was never found) takes around 30 minutes from the town centre. The return swell through the narrow shingle beach at Étretat generates a strong undertow and a characteristic rip current on falling tide days with any southwesterly swell. The shingle itself is coarse and steep, producing a sharp plunge to swimming depth at the water's edge — depth is reached immediately, and the backwash on the steep profile is significant. The beach is supervised in summer. Shore anglers work the chalk platform to the north of the Falaise d'Amont during the low-water window, targeting bass and pollack in the tidal race around the headland. The 8-metre tidal range means this platform is accessible for only a brief window on each tidal cycle; the chalk face above the fishing position is the standard caution repeated for all low-water access at Étretat. The neap-to-spring variation in beach width is visually dramatic: at neap low water the beach extends perhaps 150 metres; at spring low water the full 400-metre foreshore is dry shingle, exposing the chalk reef field that frames the arc of the bay. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. For authoritative French tide data, consult SHOM (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine) at shom.fr.