This morning we awoke to a wake up call and fog in Le Havre. Our plan was to once again skip any of the ship’s tours and find our own way to Honfleur, known as the Gem of Normandy. We knew that there were buses running there from Le Havre, but the times were very limited. We had to find our way to the bus station by 8:49 and it was a fair walk from the ship terminal.

Le Havre was obliterated during WWII such that it had to be completely rebuilt after the war. The use of concrete was embraced by those who rebuilt the city and it is now practically a shrine to concrete. Our journey to the bus station took us down a wide boulevard that is normally a nice, tree-lined street. There was, however, a vast amount of construction going on all over Le Havre, and they seemed to be laying new trolley tracks down the middle of the street so that the entire street was closed to vehicle traffic and it was massively dug up. We were also looking for a croissant, but the best we managed to find was a street named for them.

We did, however, finally find the bus station, which was through the train station platforms and located in a temporary portable. I quickly discovered that what they say about the French (at least this one) is true. If you at least try and speak French, they are very accommodating and helpful. So as I stumbled with my rusty high school French, the ticket clerk immediately switched to English and was very helpful and yes, even pleasant. We soon had our return tickets in hand and just had to wait for the number 20 bus. We had to wait a while, but in the meantime we at least found a couple of croissants in the station shop, and they were pretty good.

It was a short ride to Honfleur, but a huge change in environs. The bus dropped us just a couple of blocks from the old part of town and it was astounding how picturesque Honfleur is. The buildings around the old boat basin are very quaint and form an incredible backdrop to the scene, but the amazing thing about this town is that as you wander the twisting and turning streets that lead away from the basin, the buildings remain just as picturesque. Street after street was impossibly intriguing and picturesque—the kind of town where every corner and street invites you to explore further.

A Typical View of Mike

We arrived early enough that shops were just opening and they were just setting up the restaurants that completely line one side of the boat basin. We wandered our way through the winding streets, enjoying the plethora of art galleries and interesting shops. And finally, we found our boulangerie for a truly wonderful croissant.

One other important shopping stop was a chocolate shop. After making our purchases we exited the shop just as a large line of people went trooping by us up the street. At the head of the formation was the leader bearing a Princess flag—it was the Honfleur tour group from our ship. We looked at each other and turned the other way out of the shop, so glad to be free to explore on our own.

Next stop: lunch! As mentioned, one side of the basin is lined with restaurant after restaurant, with the tables lining the sidewalk and overlooking the boats in the basin. After starting with the local paté, Mike had the seafood platter, which included oysters, prawns, and langoustines, as well as winkles and whelks, and no, we don’t know which was which.

(It was quite a plate of seafood.  This is either a whelk or a winkle – I’ll have to look up the difference when I get home.  It was a lot or work digging each of these little guys out of their shells – I must have had 30or 40 on my plate, and the contents all together did not add up to a whole lot.  It was also interesting seeing the difference between a large prawn and a langoustine.  The latter really was much more like a very small lobster, both in terms of its shell and its taste. –M)

I had the local specialty, mussels.

Everything was absolutely delicious and we lingered over each dish as we watched the people and enjoyed the scene. And yes, the fog had long ago burned off and we had sunshine!

Another fun part of being in France was the opportunity to use a little bit of my French language skills, which are pretty minimal. But it started to slowly come back, and it was truly helpful in loosening up those French shop keepers. In one shop, my poor French was actually slightly better than the shop keeper’s poor English, and we had fun figuring out what each other was saying. Mike is also picking up more and more words in his French vocabulary.

( I was also amused by this shop offering Kababs and fries.

While we were waiting for the bus I went back to a nearby shop for some apple cider.  Normandy is a big apple growing area, so the specialty drinks of the area are made from apples.  They had apple cider, apple liqueur, and apple brandy.  Maybe Washington growers should get into those markets a bit more.  We put the bottle in the fridge in our room and hope to sample it before the cruise ends. –M)

We caught the bus back to Le Havre with plenty of time to spare, so we wandered into a large shopping mall that was near the bus station. They had enclosed and converted a whole series of old brick shipping warehouses into the mall and it was quite nice. It also had a children’s petting zoo with farm animals in the middle of it, something you could never do in the US! Imagine the problems that the health department would find with that idea.

We still had to walk back to the ship terminal, which was probably just over a mile and by the time we were back on the ship our feet and legs were protesting mightily. We covered a lot of ground but found France to be très bon!

-T

(That night on the ship they served a very French dinner.  Tami had French onion soup and duck l’orange, while I had escargot and frogs legs.  Yumm! –M)