A holiday home near Fécamp, in the quiet of the countryside

The drive is part of the outing. Depending on your mood and the time, you go inland or along the coast, and nothing stops you taking one there and the other back. The times below are measured from the house, without traffic: they let you fit in a stop on the way without getting your arrival time wrong.

Fécamp's big market is held on Saturday mornings on Place Bellet. If you arrived the day before, from 4 pm, it is the outing that gets the stay going: fill your baskets for the weekend, or for the first days of a week with several families. Bring cool bags for fresh produce, as there are still 25 minutes of road before the fridge at the house.

Leave early if you want the market, a walk round the port and to be back for lunch on the terrace. The market is mornings only: the afternoon is for visits or Cap Fagnet.

On the same Saturday, Doudeville holds a more village-style market, also 25 minutes away, which we cover along with the rest of the countryside on our page about the Pays de Caux. And if you are staying for the week, the Cany-Barville market on Monday mornings is only 10 minutes away: Fécamp then becomes a treat rather than a necessity for the food shopping.

Fécamp is a fishing port. Leave the car for the morning and do the rest on foot: the visits below combine with a walk along the quays. There is no need to cram it all into one day. At 25 minutes from the house, the town can be seen in two goes, Saturday for the market and the port, another day for a museum and the headland.

On a rainy day, Fécamp is also the easiest fallback from the house: two museums and an abbey church 25 minutes away, when nobody fancies the pebbles at Veulettes. Save Cap Fagnet for the first bright spell, since the view from the top is only worth it on a clear day.

Above the town, Cap Fagnet rises to about 105 to 110 metres. It is billed as the highest point on the Alabaster Coast, and the chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Salut stands on top. From up there, you see the port of Fécamp and the line of chalk cliffs running along the coast.

Stay on the paths and well back from the edge. All along the Alabaster Coast, the cliffs are retreating and rockfalls happen, at the top as well as the bottom. With children, hold their hands near the viewpoints, and avoid the top in strong wind.

Beyond Fécamp, the coast carries on to Yport, 35 minutes from the house, and Étretat, 45. If you go that far, leave in the morning and keep Fécamp for the way back, so you do not drive the same road twice. To plan these longer days and choose which part of the coast to explore for the time you have, see our page on the Alabaster Coast.

Staying in Fécamp means having the port on foot. Staying in the countryside, 25 minutes away, is a different kind of holiday: a hectare of enclosed grounds where children play without anyone watching a street, up to 4 cars parked behind the electric gate, and in the evening a sitting room where you sink into the sofas while the Smart TV plays the youngest ones' film. For a group of 11, a holiday home near Fécamp mainly saves you hunting for four parking spaces in town every time you come back.

The town is only one direction among several. From the house, the beach at Veulettes-sur-Mer is 10 minutes away and Saint-Valery-en-Caux 20, with the marina we describe on our Saint-Valery-en-Caux page. Fécamp becomes a good day out in the week, not the centre of the stay.

Outside high season, 2 nights are enough for a Saturday market and a climb up Cap Fagnet. In high season, the house is let by the week. Either way, check availability with Idylliq, and summer dates are the first to go.