The best beaches on the Alabaster Coast

These are the everyday beaches, for a morning, a picnic or the end of the day. Two are 10 minutes away, close enough to go on a whim without planning the day around them. Times are calculated from the house, without traffic. The nearest has its own page, which follows Veulettes beach through a week: tides, promenade, parking.

Between 30 and 45 minutes away, these beaches are best visited as part of a full day, along with the village or town around them. For Veules-les-Roses, the page on making the most of a day in Veules-les-Roses gives the best times to go and the car parks worth knowing.

Like every beach on the Alabaster Coast, these are pebble beaches. Water shoes change everything, both for getting into the sea and for crossing the beach barefoot. A thick beach mat or a folding chair makes the afternoon more comfortable than a towel laid on the stones.

The tide makes half the landscape. At low tide, the sea draws back to reveal sand and rocks: time for sandcastles, rock pools and foraging on the shore, which our guide to days out with kids covers in detail. At high tide, often only a strip of pebbles remains. Check the tide times the night before and choose your beach accordingly.

The Channel is cooler than the Mediterranean. For a swim with children, Veulettes remains the easiest beach in July and August, with its marked and lifeguarded zone, its floating raft, its shower and its beach wheelchair for people with reduced mobility. Elsewhere, ask locally before you go in.

On every Alabaster Coast beach, the cliffs are retreating and rockfalls happen. The rule is simple: never settle at the foot of the cliff face, even for shade. Put your things down on the sea side, at a good distance, and keep children away from the base of the cliff when they collect pebbles.

When low tide tempts you to walk along the shore to the next beach, check when the sea comes back in before you set off, and turn back well before. The way home is often the way you came. The rules that apply up top, on the GR21 footpath, are gathered on our page about renting a holiday home on the Alabaster Coast.

The best beaches on the coast do not all suit the same day. With toddlers and a pushchair, Veulettes is the easiest: you park on the promenade, a few steps from the pebbles. With teenagers who want some effort, Sotteville and its steps. For the end of the day, Petites Dalles, 10 minutes away, is more than enough.

On a market day, pair the beach with the town: Sotteville on Tuesday morning, Veules-les-Roses on Wednesday morning, Saint-Valery on Friday morning. On a clear, bright day, save Étretat, which justifies the 45-minute drive on its own. On a windy or wet day, watch the sea from the Veulettes promenade or Saint-Valery harbour instead.

And when summer heats up, the beach is only half the plan: the other half happens in the shade of the trees in the grounds, coming back for lunch. Summer weeks get booked early, so check availability with Idylliq as soon as your dates are known.