France – Sotteville-sur-Mer (En)

Sotteville-sur-Mer is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region, with a population of 388 (1999). It is part of the Dieppe district. In 1890 a wooden staircase was built to facilitate fishermen’s access to the beach.

We stayed at Camping Les Pommiers (49.879006, 0.829616 lat, long) the only one in the village 3 minutes to the village centre and 7 minutes to the wooden staircase on the cliffs. 18 euros per day all included with the Acsi card. The facilities are modern and clean but the water in the showers is only warm not hot enough. The plots are ok and there is a children’s play area. The camping manager speaks both English and Spanish. We recommend it to pass one day and see the village.

To get to the stairs and the cliffs you have to cross the very small village, which has a square where you will find the restaurants and shops of the villas, typical cute houses and the church and town hall just in a street off the square. The church is peculiar as it has a cemetery surrounding it.

We went to see the fishermen’s stairs to access the beach. Nos fuimos a ver las escaleras de los pescadores para acceder a la playa. 231 steps give access to the beach, which is bordered by high limestone cliffs. They built cabins on the rocks next to the stairs and later equipped them with railings. During World War II, the Nazis dynamited this staircase. It was rebuilt in 1954, becoming an attraction for tourists. It was impressive to see that people were going down to the beach, but we did not go down since the climb up gave us respect.

Then we went to see the next town called Veules Les Roses, which since 2017 has been on the list of “most beautiful towns in France” and which you can see in the next post!