Hello all. We%26#39;ll be in Honfleur for a few hours from around 10 am to 2 pm or so in late November. We%26#39;re wondering what%26#39;s the best way to spend our time. We%26#39;ll definitely want lunch (so a restaurant recommendation would be most welcome), but what else shouldn%26#39;t we miss? Or is the place more about roaming a bit and checking out the scenery? Thanks!
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Lunch itself will easily take you more than an hour. Be sure to try the moules à la normande (mussels cooked with apple and cream). The harbor is absolutely lovely. You can wander around easily for half an hour. Check out the Sainte-Catherine church. It is built entirely of wood and the interior gives a very intimate feeling compared to the massive cathedrals seen elsewhere. There are some smaller shops around. Artisan Chocolatier at 35 rue du Dauphin sells very good sweets.
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And there are lots of lovely art galleries and antique shops. It%26#39;s definitely just a roaming around place, nice shops, pretty streets, lovely architecture.
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The Museum of Old Honfleur is worth a visit, it is very quirky indeed, but has a good maritime collection, a pretty good costume collection, complete household interiors, with an interesting assortment of household items and other byegones.
The St Catherine%26#39;s Church is free to enter, and well worth a visit (as has been mentioned), the seperate, and mad church tower houses part of the Eugene Boudin Museum%26#39;s collection, so is pay-to-enter (you can get a combo ticket for this museum), but you might like to take a look.
Take a walk along the riverside by the park, out to the mouth of the Seine Estuary (though it might be blowy in Nov), it%26#39;s a good walk, and you can watch the ships go by!
http://en.ot-honfleur.fr/Accueil,0,0,1.html
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For a restaurant, stroll around both sides of the harbour, up Rue Haute a bit and see which menu/price/decor takes your fancy. There%26#39;s plenty of choice.
The picture post card Honfleur is the Old Lieutenancy and the high slate fronted houses bording the quay side.
If you are looking across the water to those houses, The actual old town of Honfleur is behind you, behind St Stevens church. The town consisted of the square and the Rue de la ville which is 150 yds long. Where the car park and %26quot;ring road%26quot; is now used to be the moat and town wall. That was knocked down in the 17th C and that%26#39;s when those narrow houses were built. The stone from the town wall was used to build the salt lofts in which the state kept the salt on which it had a monopoly. The Lieutenancy was the gate way into town from the direction of Caen.
The wooden church, Ste Catherine, was built just after the 100 years war around 1460. It was built in wood because stone was needed to rebuild other buildings after the destruction of the war. The bell tower is separate as towers attract lightning and it was supposed to protect the main church from being burnt down by lightning strikes.
Eugene Boudin was born in Honfleur. It was he who discovered and encouraged Monet. The art museum is named after him and has quite a few of his works.
Erik Satie of %26quot;Gymnopedie%26quot; fame was born in Honfleur. His house has been turned into a %26quot;museum%26quot;. It%26#39;s a strange visit with commentary in headphones of your choice of language.
As Honfleur attracted the impressionist painters it still does today and there are many art galleries and sometimes artists on the quayside. (perhaps not too many in November)
Honfleur is like it is because François I , in 1517, decided he needed a port to trade with a place that had been discovered across the Atlantic so had Le Havre built. Honfleur went to sleep for a few hundred years.
There%26#39;s plenty to keep you occupied in Honfleur.
www.cpmac.com
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