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Honfleur

You’ve either heard of it or you haven’t and we hadn’t. At the estuary of the Seine, opposite the port city of Le Havre, is this beautiful town. Of course I can look good in nice clothes and nearly everywhere looks good under blue skies. Yesterday Honfleur was dressed well and it looked great.

Unfortunately for the seafarers, the harbour access was eventually blocked with Seine silt, save for a dredged channel that maintains access for small boats. Maybe it was the creation of Le Havre as a result that has meant Honfleur retains an olde worlde charm that wasn’t destroyed in WW2.



We walked the 2+ miles from:the campsite to the Vieux Bassin and drank a throughly deserved Café Crème at La Maison Bleu, a café on the cobblestones where the waiter was one of those career guys who can just do it.



He doesn’t carry any aids, save a tray and a cloth, with a card machine when he’s ready to take payments. When he came for our order he already had those from at least three tables and picked up two more on the way back. These were all mental notes; no order pad was used. It was beautifully professional and it’s hard to imagine many others being able to do that.

We walked the streets, following a recommended route, popped into a couple of churches and marvelled at the old buildings. Many others were doing the same as this place is very popular. There are plenty of Dutch, German and a few Belgie visitors and I expect plenty of French too but they mingle more easily.






It’s an easy place to visit and when we’d had a sandwich, drunk a beer and seen plenty of oysters being served, we walked the long way back via a viewpoint that really shows the town, the Pont Normandie and the huge motorhome ‘Aire’ at the other side of the big wheel but I cut that from the pic.




Then we were surprised by the tunefulness and volume of these bells which chimed the quarter as we stood to admire their construction. This is at La Chapelle de Grâce, the site of a Norman (C11th) sanctuary that was built in order to help protect seafarers. Mostly it was lost in a landslide in 1538 but some parts were spared and another chapel was built in 1613,




The return walk was on country lanes that afforded glimpses of grand houses behind high hedges and gates. It was a nice wander of maybe 3+ miles, back to the campsite La Briquerie (https://www.campinglabriquerie.com/), where the ACSI rate was €23 plus visitor tax (which seems to get you everywhere except the UK).


We thought it best at this point to try the local cider and it was excellent.




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