The two lighthouses appearing in Bouvard et Pécuchet, located where the electric facilities are standing today, were destroyed in 1944. They were described in detail in La Seine et ses bords, a travel story by romantic author Charles Nodier (1780-1844).

The La Hève cliffs are mentioned by historiographer Joseph Morlent (1793-1861), born in Le Havre, who, in his Voyage du Havre à Rouen en bateau à vapeur (From Le Havre to Rouen on a Steamboat), quotes Bernardin de Saint-Pierre to explain the coining of the word “Hève”.

In a completely different style, Raymond Queneau (1903-1976), in his collection of poems Fendre les flots, published after he turned 60, recalls his youth in Le Havre and refers to the cliffs several times. The patterns of “tides” and “shingles” often appear in texts that some researchers described as “shingle-poems”. La Hève is also refered to in the collection Chêne et chien. The poet related his walks as a child near the Sainte-Adresse lighthouse.

Contemporary author Philippe Huet (born 1945) published a collection of thriller short stories entitled L’Ivresse des Falaises. In “Poste-mortem”, one of the short stories, a character follows a car, because he suspects its passenger wants to throw herself from the La Hève cliff.

The cliffs were painted by numerous artists in the 19th century, including Jean-Baptiste Corot (1796-1875) in La mer vue du haut des falaises.