November seemed like our last opportunity to travel out of town for a few days before the northern France winter hit hard. We chose Dieppe in Normandie. It's only about two hours from Paris by train. Rental cars are available right at the train station, which made it easy to take drives up and down the coast of the English Channel (over here, "La Manche").
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| A break in the weather at La Manche. |
That was pretty much all we knew about Dieppe--aside from the fact that it was a very active fishing village, and had been the site of a raid by British and Canadian troops (with a smattering of American Rangers) shortly after the U.S. entered the second world war. Everything I had ever read about the raid suggested that it was principally a psychological operation orchestrated by Churchill to demonstrate that the Allies could strike anywhere on the continent at will. The raiders managed to make off with some German radar sets, but tactically or strategically speaking, did not accomplish much more than that--although you might not know that from some of the local monuments.
The town is small with rustic charm, and the high chalk cliffs overlooking pebbled beaches are ruggedly beautiful. On the other hand, we miscalculated the weather by a few days, which alternated between torrential downpours and high winds for much of our first night and day in town. It was still not enough to keep us indoors, though, and generally added a dramatic element to the scenery. Best of all, local restaurants not only allowed dogs, but welcomed Sugar inside, so we weren't forced to take meals back to the hotel or shiver with the smokers out on leaky covered patios.
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| Sugar storming a beach in Normandie. |
The Normandie coast has long attracted artists, most notably19th century realists and impressionists. Coastal Towns such as Dieppe and Étretan have markers indicating the spots where artists such as Claude Monet stood (probably) while painting iconic views of the rock arches, cliffs, fishing boats, and bathers.
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| The Chappelle Notre-Dame de la Garde in Étretat, overlooking falaises (chalk cliffs and rock formations formed by erosion) and La Manche. |
One of my unexpected favorites of the trip was Dieppe's Église Saint-Jacques. Construction began in the 12th century and continued through the 16th century. It's massive, old, and gothic, and seems to brood in the center of town--but it's in no way a ruin, despite the netting hung throughout the nave to catch falling debris from the ceiling.
I tried several photos of the church's exterior, trying to capture its gargoyles, weird dog-monkey creatures scampering up and down the walls, and more conventional gothic details. With one exception (in my opinion), none seemed to really capture its strange and spooky grandeur, though. Luckily, there are markers where Walter Sickert and Camille Pissarro stood while painting l'eglise, so if you can't visit in person, give them a try.
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Camille Pissarro, L'Église Saint-Jacques à Dieppe, 1901, Musée d'Orsay collection.
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| Walter Sickert, The Facade of Saint-Jacques, Dieppe, 1902, Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester. |
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| Paris Werewolf, detail from "Spooky-Looking Old French Church", Dieppe, 2023. |
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