Stroll The Experimental Etretat Gardens
Perched atop the white cliffs, just under the scenic Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde church, is the meditative Jardins d'Etretat. Skilfully revived by landscape architect Russian-born Alexandre Grivko, they have morphed into an avant-garde open-air gallery of compelling artworks blending art, technology and ethical values steeped in nature.
Looking out to sea and Etretat's cliffs, it's hard to find a more inspiring and dramatic setting than this.
What Etretat might be lacking art-wise, the gardens fully make up for. Wander through leafy arches and terraced gardens or the scenic swirls of the Jardin La Manche, a maze meant to reflect the movement of the crashing waves below. Stop and listen to Sergey Katran's terracotta sculptures shaped like the sound waves of the word 'art' uttered in 125 languages, a sound installation in its own right produced by the artist ::vtol:: (aka Dmitry Morozov) and entitled Neo-Babylonian Dialogue.
Another highlight is Spanish artist Samuel Salcedo's Drops of Rain. Scattered across the center of the garden, his huge smooth sculptures of faces express a range of emotions and are meant to symbolize the various moods of the ocean and its inhabitants.
