A holiday home for a week near Fécamp

Over seven days, the western half of the coast has one advantage: it has an answer for every kind of weather. Fécamp has its museums and abbey church for grey days, Cap Fagnet for clear ones. Étretat and Yport call for sunshine and some patience with parking. Le Havre, more urban, does perfectly well without a beach.

For a week based near Fécamp, we suggest three big outings to the west and no more. Beyond that, the holiday turns into a tour. The other days stay within 25 minutes, sometimes zero, and that is what leaves energy for the Étretat day.

In high season, the house is let by the week anyway; how that format works, from the practicalities to the overall pace, is covered on our page about a week-long holiday home in Normandy. Here, we stick to the itinerary.

The arrival day depends on your booking, which is why the days are numbered. There is only one fixed point: the Fécamp market is on Saturday morning. Make Day 3 fall on that Saturday, or shift the order around it, and swap Days 5 and 7 if the weather demands.

It is the most popular outing of the week and the most demanding. Étretat's car parks charge and fill up fast, especially at weekends and in summer. On a weekday, leaving the house soon after breakfast, you arrive before they are full, which changes the whole day. Take two cars at most, even with eleven people.

Once there, you have two directions. On the Aval side, the arches of the Porte d'Aval and the Manneporte, with the Aiguille, the needle of rock. On the Amont side, a path climbs to the Porte d'Amont and the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde. It is exposed to the wind: windproof jackets for everyone, and one rule repeated to the children, nobody goes near the edge.

The way home goes through Yport, 35 minutes from the house. This former fishing village, with its pebble beach between Fécamp and Étretat, is a natural stop: the place to sit facing the sea after the walk, before the last stretch of road.

Between two big outings, a day spent within 20 minutes of the house prevents fatigue. Markets help: Cany-Barville on Monday morning, 10 minutes away, and Saint-Valery-en-Caux on Friday morning, 20 minutes. Go early, come back for lunch, and the afternoon belongs to the grounds or the beach at Veulettes, 10 minutes away.

At the house, a week allows what a weekend does not: putting on a wash after a beach day, hanging swimming costumes out in the garden, cooking the fish bought that morning without watching the clock. The bar and the big table become headquarters, where tomorrow gets decided.

For rainy days, keep the Les Pêcheries museum in Fécamp in reserve: it easily replaces a cancelled beach outing. And if you would rather try different nearby beaches than more visits, our guide to the best beaches on the Alabaster Coast ranks them by driving time.

Le Havre makes a good end to a week in the west. Its centre, rebuilt by Auguste Perret, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005, and it surprises anyone who pictures Normandy only as half-timbered houses. For travellers from Britain, it is also the Brittany Ferries port for Portsmouth: the house is an hour's drive from the ferry, so a week near Fécamp can start and finish at the terminal.

This week deliberately leaves out the area east of the house: Saint-Valery, Veules-les-Roses, Varengeville and Dieppe. If you come back, or if your group prefers that side, our page for a week on the Dieppe side offers quite a different pace on the same coast.

Booking a holiday home for a week near Fécamp in summer takes some forward planning: these 7-night weeks are the first to go. If your leave is already booked, check which dates are free with Idylliq now, then build the week around the Fécamp Saturday.