Even beautiful holiday hotspots made famous by artists such as Claude Monet weren’t immune to the WW2 German war machine.
This beautiful beach at Étretat - with its famous cliffs and arch - saw several big bunkers constructed, some of which remain today.
A complex network of tunnels were dug in the cliffs to the east of the main beach area opening out into several gun emplacements, observation positions and machine gun positions. While the tunnels still remain hidden away inside the cliff any remnants of German concrete have all been removed.
At the western end of the beach though, there are still a number of bunkers remaining, and just before the steps to the cliff at the end of the promenade you can get a close up look at a special construction anti tank gun bunker and an observation position. These two constructions were linked by an underground tunnel cut into the chalk cliff.
Walk a few flights of steps on to the cliffs and you can also look out over the beach and bay but if you look down you'll see you're standing on the concrete roof of a machine gun position.
The beach here was completely covered with defensive structures, mines , and barbed wire too, a stark contrast to what you can see today which mirrors the Monet paintings once again.