Euro Trip 2024 - Chapter III - Love at First Sight in Honfleur

Our 3rd chapter of this Summer's adventures was Honfleur, France. At this point we were on week 2 of our trip. 

I picked Honfleur as our next stop because I hadn't spent any time in coastal Normandy, and even though I only knew it from Monet's paintings, I'd felt a strong draw to be there every time we'd driven past the area.

The vieux-bassin, or old harbor. 

If you don't know, my hubby Scott is a middle school French teacher. His being involved with his school district's French exchange for over 20 years is our connection to this part of France. Among other places, hubby takes his French students to the beaches of Normandy and the American Cemetery while he's on exchange with them, and he suggested we stop there on the way to Honfleur. It was unplanned, and a really nice idea! He has his own family connection to Normandy, as his great-uncle was one of the US soldiers who landed on D-Day +2 during WWII. 

The Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial was just over a 2-hr drive along the way, so after breakfast with our friends in Saint-Briac, we headed over. I'm glad we went early, as it got more crowded as we were leaving. The site is really peaceful, and I didn't know that it's considered American soil. It sits on 172.5 acres, and has the graves of 9,389 military personnel who perished, plus the Wall of the Missing, with names inscribed. There's a museum that is very well done, the beautiful colonnade with the historical maps & information panels, a circular chapel, and has views of the beaches. 

We happened to be there while a ceremony was beginning and veterans all stepped forward. We sang the US national anthem. It was very moving. I cried. It had just been the 80th anniversary of D-Day a few weeks earlier. 

Afterwards we drove down to one of the beaches (not Omaha Beach, but next to it) which was almost deserted. We had a bag of snacks in the car that we decided would be our lunch, with the intention of getting a meal after we checked into our apartment in Honfleur. 

When choosing a home base in coastal Normandy, I had been looking at Honfleur, Trouville, and Deauville, with the idea of staying in one of those towns while visiting the other 2. My friend Victoria had visited the area recently and recommended Honfleur. She was absolutely right - I loved it so much I didn't even leave to go visit anywhere else! We'll leave that for the next visit.

The smaller outdoor market in town in the square by the church.

Cider & crêpes...what more could you need?

Honfleur is a medieval port town in the Calvados area where the Seine River meets the English Channel. It was love at first sight for me. The "vieux-bassin" is the old harbor lined with quirky old buildings, restaurants and shops, and boats. The half-timbered homes, the cobblestone streets, the light...it all cast a spell on me. Do you know who else loved it there? Monet. 

Claude Monet's mentor was Eugène Boudin, a painter from Honfleur who is said to have discovered him, and Monet visited Honfleur several times between1858-1872. In the lovely little Musée Eugène Boudin, I'm sure I saw a letter Monet wrote saying he liked it so much there he would be staying several months. We happened to be there during a special exhibit, and I'm translating the title as: 'In the Company of Eugène Boudin. Between the Coast of Grace and the Flowery Coast, At the Dawn of Impressionism.' It was wonderful, as I hadn't known Boudin prior to this visit, and they had some beautiful works on display. We each picked out some postcard prints to bring home - Charlotte framed a couple and they're now hanging on the wall of her dorm room!

I have to say we really enjoyed the museum - highly recommend! Be sure to check the hours though - they close for lunch. Your ticket also includes admission into the Belltower of Saint-Caterine, which I'm disappointed I didn't go see on my own when Charlotte opted not to go. That's on me. The building is so interesting, and the church itself is absolutely stunning. It is thought to be the oldest (and largest) wooden church in France, and it was built by shipbuilders in the late 15th century after the Hundred Years War destroyed the old stone church. While stone masons went about rebuilding the city's fortifications, the ship builders took to the forest and harvested the wood to build a temporary church, which has stood now for 500 years. Free entry, and I'd say it's a must see, even if you just duck in a for a few minutes! It was located next to our apartment, and was absolutely beautiful. Bonus that we were there for the market day in the square outside the church.

While Charlotte needed some downtime just chilling in the apartment, Scott & I had a really lovely meal and I loved drinking my local cider sitting in a quay-side restaurant. We picked up a lovely take-away pizza a few doors down for Charlotte. We walked to the grocery store for some goods, and took walks through the cobblestone streets exploring the town. Since the sun didn't set there until 10:15pm, I had plenty of time to take a walk along the Seine until I reached the beach. Strolling back through the Jardin des Personnalités (Garden of Personalities which features busts of important people who lived or stayed in Honfleur) I found the busts of Monet, Beaudelaire, and Samuel de Champlain. I appreciated that Monet's was by the pond. It felt like an homage to his pond at Giverny, complete with water lillies.

Gorgeous platter to share for our apéro, one of my fave French traditions.

Loved the quirky buildings.

The beach where the Seine meets the English Channel.

There's a path from the Naturospace parking area that takes you towards the Seine and from there you can walk to the beach and the Jardin des Personnalités. 

Samuel de Champlain is an important person in Canadian history, and he sailed from Honfleur to New France following Jacques Cartier's route. There's the Samuel de Champlain memorial arch in Honfleur with with the dates of his departures from the port. Champlain was an explorer and hydrographer, and settled Quebec City, where my own ancestors would arrive from the same shores of France a few years later. Place Royale is the site where he founded the settlement and it is my favorite spot in Quebec City. Note: If you've never been to Quebec City, it's worth a visit! I love it in the Winter especially, but it's lovely year-round! I wrote about my most recent visit to the city for Winter Carnival here.

While out for a walk we discovered vendors setting up for Honfleur's huge outdoor market across the old harbor. It spread across multiple streets, smaller but similar to the biggest outdoor market I've been to which was 2 years ago in Uzès in the Occitanie region of the south. There was a great selection of pretty much anything you could want to buy at an outdoor market. I was thrilled to find Mara des Bois, a variety of strawberry I'd heard about and wanted to try.

Interestingly, I didn't really notice other Americans there. There were lots of French people on vacation, some Germans, and Brits. 

When I was booking an apartment for our stay, originally I found one I loved, but waited too long and it was booked. We found another one that Scott really liked, and it turned out to be absolutely amazing! The description & reviews online clearly stated that it was across the street from a bar, and that it could get noisy in the evenings, but we were staying Monday-Thursday and didn't have any issues with noise!

The entire top floor was our home in Honfleur - every room had a view!

View from my bedroom window.

View from the kitchen.

The location was right in the historic center, with adorable views, and one house away from the old harbor. Everything in town was within walking distance. The apartment was stocked with a bottle of local cider, coffee pods for the Nespresso, and some candy, plus a few pantry staples. While we ate several meals out, we did buy groceries and snacks, and had breakfasts and some meals in the apartment. 

The apartment was nicely decorated and very comfortable. The only thing that was odd was the counter chairs were so high I had a really hard time getting up there. The bathroom mirrors were really high too. The owners must be tall.

Charlotte got comfy in the apartment fast, and as this was really our only downtime for the rest of the trip, she spent a lot of time just hanging out here.

Almost every bit of artwork in the home was by a local artist, Natacha Perlik, who paints bright, colorful, playful scenes. I found her work brought so much interest to the rooms, and I ended up finding her atelier and a shop down the street who carried her prints. I brought home a print of the old harbor, which has almost a graffiti style over it, and it came with 2 postcards of her painting "Les Amoureux." 

We did manage to get Charlotte out of the apartment for some shopping, walking and dinner in a restaurant by the harbor for moules frites (mussels.) Memorable for me was that they had the café gourmand, which I will always order if it's offered! If you don't know it, it is an espresso with a sampling of 4-5 mini versions of the restaurant's desserts. Tip: If you ask for a café allongé, you'll get a longer (or lungo) espresso shot.

We picked a restaurant with another great view, but also the view of a television in a neighboring bar showing the Eurocup France v. Spain semi-final. France 2-1 lost but it was exciting and fun to watch.

This café gourmand included a crême brûlée, panna cotta, tarte aux pommes, and a dark chocolate mousse.

Just after sunset on our last night.

There is still so much to see that we didn't get around to, but it was a lovely 3 days of exploring this quaint historic town. I felt sad to leave France that last morning, but was really excited for the next chapter of our adventures, which would bring us next to reunite with our Belgian exchange student in the city of Ghent!