Day 17 - LeHavre/ Honfleur, France

LeHavre, France. Kinda grey again this morning but a bit warmer than it has been. Bit of a shit show trying to find our way to the city center so we can catch our bus to Honfleur, a quaint little commune approx. 25km from LeHavre on the other side of the river Seine. The Transat Jacques Vabre, a “yachting race that follows the historic coffee trading route between France and Brazil…named after (and sponsored by) a French brand of coffee” was scheduled to start today, so the bridge from the port into downtown Le Havre was sporadically closed throughout the day, making it difficult to cross on foot. We ended up on a shuttle bus from the boat to city center and as we stepped off the bus, the skies opened up. 30 minutes later, the skies cleared up. The bus trip from Le Havre to Honfleur included a guide who gave us a brief history of LeHavre…it is a major port city in the Normandy region of northern France. It is a huge industrial port with approximately 30% of its population working at the port. As the largest container port in France, they’ve become quite creative in repurposing old containers, ie. they’ve created a series of individual student residences using the containers. There is also a huge industry for the building of wind turbines - check out the collection of blades just below our cabin balcony. We crossed over the Normandy bridge, which was completed in 1995 to get to Honfleur. Honfleur is a 15th century village with cobblestone streets. It was founded by the Vikings and its name means “Corner by the Sea”. We were told that Honfleur enjoys over 3 million visitors in the summer and that it is the most popular village in France 🤔🤔 - guess the key word is ‘village’, cuz my favorite spot in France is Nice. Unlike Le Havre, which is just across the river Seine, Honfleur wasn’t bombed during the Second World War. We meandered up and down all of the various streets, losing all of the tourists who were huddled around the main square. We came across the local communal laundry facilities with their hours of operation, a number of hotels, and lots of stores selling the local delicacy - Calvados - a brandy made from apples and/or pears with a minimum alcohol content of 40%. Had a quick lunch and wandered over to a small island in the river delta, enjoying the occasional sighting of the sun. Great dinner with the gang…the Aussies had taken an excursion into Paris and the other Canadians toured Honfleur with the ship excursions. Kept trying to talk Wayne and Karin into staying for another week, but no go…promised to keep in touch.Read more