Before moooving on to my next major trip collection, allow me to clear out some old trip photos that I never got around to posting about. This one will have cows in it, if you hadn't gathered that from my title and my careful play on words above.
Mers les Bains isn't a major travel location or a "must see" destination by any means. It's more of a place to go if you've been everywhere else in France or a place you go if you live in the country and are looking for something new and a little less touristy. This is just my opinion of course, locals may tell you otherwise.
It's located along the West coast of the country and shares the same chalk cliffs as the towns of Étretat and Fécamp.
It's actually very similar to both of those locations but maybe not quite as scenic and beautiful as either of them. Maybe it was just the weather we experienced that day?
On the plus side, its also not as busy as either of the other two locations and often times, less people (especially tourists) can be a good thing.
Then again, maybe the lack of people was also due to the time of year that we were there?
Anyway, my wife and I visited the city in the early spring of 2020 (or maybe 2021?). As you can see it was a bit cloudy and grey that day, which could also be a reason that I didn't care for the site as much as the other two towns I keep referring to. Often weather makes a huge difference for travel vacations.
During our visit we hiked the top of the cliffs and during our walk we came across a few furry friends that we had to stop and say hello to.
Cows can be such friendly creatures aren't they?
Mers les Bains directly translates to "Seas the Baths" or maybe "Sea Baths" to sound a little less awkward. I'm not sure where the origin of the name comes from but if I had to guess I'd say that it has something to do with swimming in the sea.
The town itself had a resort like look and feel about it, which also alludes to the idea of it being a beach getaway location.
It had these blocks of colorful townhouses that created a vibrant colorful look to the place. They happened to be boarded up for winter but I could imagine the streets being lined with cheery party people on a hot summer day.
I got the impression that they were summer homes, Airbnb's and small Hotel rentals.
I'm guessing that the town gets pretty busy in the summer months when the weather is a bit nicer.
Perhaps this is a local Hotspot for people wanting to visit the coast without having to deal with the copious amounts of tourists at Étretat and Fécamp?
Mers les Bains also connects with another small town called Le Treport and together the two appear as one large city.
Something interesting about this is that the two cities are actually in different states as well (or cantons, regions, provinces - I forget what the country calls its different borderlines). Anyway, Le Trepprt falls on the Normandy side and Mers les Bains falls on the Picardie side. There is a sign marker to let you know that you are about to cross borders. We visited both locations that day but I didn't take any photos at all in Le Treport. Maybe that says something about it? I'll let you be the judge.
There were many similarities between the two but there was also a some differences. For instance, Le Treport definitely had a different sort of vibe to it. It felt more like a party town somehow, like a place where the younger crowd would go to drink and be loud and merry while the older mature crowd stays in Mers les Bains to sit on the beach peacefully and swim in the sea. Maybe its set up for people to party on the one side and sleep on the other? Anyway I think you get the idea of what I'm saying, two connected cities with two very different feels but each with their own appeal to their market audience. Being so close to winter when we went, there was no partying on either side. So after our hike and brief little tour we headed back home. We both agreed that the cows were the highlight that day.
I love cows! They are so inquisitive and I was always fascinated to watch their behaviour when I was on the canals. Whenever we moored up, they always came to the fence looking so curious. They make lovely photos too.
The townhouses are so charming, indeed, and I do imagine them to be great Airbnb's:)))
Yeah cows often have really great personalities and are very friendly. Very curious indeed. We love running into them when we travel.
Those cows were a friendly bunch! The townhouses are awesome. Can you imagine having one aa holiday home. Blummin magic
Yeah we would love to have a cottage/ holiday home. I used to wonder how the previous generation could afford it, and that was before the housing market went insane. Now it's absurd to think about. I don't think you could find a cottage in Canada for even 300k anymore unless you drove 12 hours north to the areas that only have dirt roads and you need a 4x4 truck to get to.
It's kinda the same here. Everyone was go on a staycation we think it would be grand to have as little cottage or flat near the sea. Then we look at the prices and curse the Airbnb revolution
Yeah it's pretty crazy. I wonder how it compares to Canada since this country is exceptionally bad. Let's see if I can find something other than annicdotal stories of the new generation not being able to buy a 500-700k starter home condo, or banks implementing 70 year mortgages to make home ownership possible...
Most countries made a major correction after the 2008 housing crash and then gradually increased over the next 12 years. Canada was like hold my beer I'm going to blow the roof off this ceiling...
Wow, that is bad!!
How the hell can that be!? I thought we were the worst here. Looks like Japan has it right!
There are a lot of reasons here but a big one is our immigration policy, which is 500k new residents per year, and that has been going on for many years. So, supply and demand. Homes are being bought as fast as they are being built. There are other factors as well though - foreign investors, money laundering, and even just Canadian culture and peoples ideas around home ownership.
It's finally starting to shift though because they are raising the mortgage rates rapidly. They went from 2-3% to 5-7% in just a few years. Haha it's pretty fuckity.
Yeah Japan has it right. Slow but steady growth would be nice, just to outpace inflation by a little. Not crazy hyper covid inflation but the regular kind.
What a place!! It doesn’t look at any place I visited in France (I only visited the Blue Coast and Paris to be honest), but those cute and perfect houses of Mers les Bains are so beautiful! I love your post!
That area of the country is very beautiful. Anywhere along the coastline with the chalk cliffs.
Ah it still a beautiful area man, love it! These cows always remind me of Milka chocolate hahah...Good to see around here!
Yeah I get the association. Where I live in Canada has a shit ton of dairy cows so it reminded me of home. Out west has beef cows and we have dairy cows
sorry, totally distracted by the face on the cow trying to escape through the wire!
LOL love it
Yeah it's a great shot. My wife took that one. 😂😁
👍
Oh wow the cows and colorful houses look so beautiful. I also impressed with the cliff, Mother Nature created a masterpiece over there.
Nature is pretty amazing indeed. The cliffs are impressive for sure.
The houses have unique color and have great architectural design. The view on the cliff is spectacular. Indeed, this is a must visit place. Thanks for giving us a tour!😊
Yeah the colorful homes are really neat. Nice bit of cheeriness when the landscape is grey and dreary in the winter
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Very unique and colorful townhouses. Would love to experience it but it's too far, gonna need a Visa 🙂
Thanks for sharing this wonderful photos.
You can experience it through Hive 😁
That's what I do for most places as well
Hahaha yes, thanks to Hive. We can go places through blogs 🤗
I’m amazed by the place, it is so beautiful though. I am also love cows, they are so adorable. I also love the greenish grass and the ocean as I am also a nature lover. Great shots I love how you capture that place ☺️
We love seeing cows when we are hiking. Such friendly creatures. They had a great view where they were located 😁
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