I have a special connection to Honfleur, France, about 2 hours north of Paris on the coast, which goes beyond the fact that one of my best friends lives there.
Several years ago, I would scout places all over France, and beyond, for possible artist tour locations. Places that had a particular charm, quality, light, architecture, attraction, nice choice of B&B, hotels, restaurants, museums or galleries, and oh yeah, poppies was an artist's special request. You see what I mean? Pretty easy task, hmm? The perfect place for artists to congregate for a week, draw, paint, sit in cafés and discuss, and have accommodations where we could store (dump) all the equipment, hopefully with hotel owners who understood the artist's temperament. I must have first visited in the early 90's, found it to be still artist's dream location and would eventually set up a tour here. So I got to know some B&B owners, gallery shopkeepers, police commissioners (we won't get into that now), restaurants, museums and galleries, and so on. Some of which are no longer there, having changed ownership or location, except of course, museums (and probably said commissioners).
So visiting again nowadays, without the pressure of pulling off the impeccable tour (no such thing), just for the fun of it and for my own taste, is such a pleasure.
I just spent another weekend in Honfleur, visiting boutiques, thrift shops, antique shops, art galleries... in essence just enjoying wandering around in great warm summer weather, even with a mask (because astonishingly, there were crowds).
A bit of background, Honfleur is mentioned in documents dating back to 1027 A.D, citing it as an important port of call for transporting merchandise from Rouen to England. It is in the Calvados region of France, on the Seine estuary which leads to the English Channel. Visits not to miss : the old harbor, the church of Saint Catherine, the Eugene Boudin Museum, the Satie museum, the Pont de Normandie.... But I won't linger on the the tourist attractions, because you can find information easily online.
Since this is about a weekend getaway there, I wanted to give a glimpse of our way of seeing this ancient town, of hidden gems, of things off the beaten track. For example, I love thrift shops, second hand shops, brocantes as they call them here, and in the autumn, the garage sales or vide-greniers are a treasure trove of unusual finds. Just loads of fun for objects that tell a story. I've basically furnished whole apartments or houses with objects found in brocantes, I find them so nice to mix and match with contemporary pieces. My dining table, from 1930's, with art deco legs, was found in a Caverne d'Ali-Baba shop (kind of a like a furniture Goodwill but with objects that go back a hundred or so years). A set of hand made pottery tea bowls were found in our vide-greniers in our village. A number of paintings dating to 1860's were found at a yearly antique fair.
And this time around, resale shop-hopping in Honfleur, was kind of like a 360° experience. The town is littered with galleries and antique shops, its pedestrian shopping streets dating back hundreds of years. It's just fun to buy old things in an old place, like buying things that are hanging in a museum. I was on the lookout for serving plates, tea services, handcrafted dishes, or a multi-tiered serving plate. Anyway, my wishes were granted, after about a dozen of shops (and very little negotiating, the prices were good), I found most everything, which will give a renewed color or accent to our dinner parties or presentation of my homebaking.
Another thing we do when away to Honfleur, when the weather is nice enough is to get some exercise. However you will find no compromising pictures here! We've spent weekends either taking bikes up the coast (watch out for gales) or going to sea-water thermal spas for girl's getaways, or playing tennis for birthday celebrations at hotels or rentals, or the most accessible for whole families : walking at the beach.
Of course, you can’t go to Honfleur without testing it’s countless restaurants or seafood. We often grab breakfast on the port, have our rich café crème and croissants and watch passerbys as we wake up gradually to our day. Moules frites or mussels and fries, is a common thoroughfare along the coast in France and I’ve had especially delicious ones here, something about the sauce, maybe cider ? Wonder what the alcohol content is in that coz I always get giddy... We’ve also had fun going to the fishmonger, right on the port, with daily choices coming directly from the vicinity (reminding us that neither salmon nor lobster are from Normandy). This last visit they wrapped up several kilos of stingray, sole, trout and shrimp in an ice pack to bring back to the Paris region, we now have a supply in the freezer for weeks. A lot of French travelers do this, btw. As is tradition, we always end the day with a coffee, tea or cocktail at our favorite outdoor cafes, while taking in the beauty of the old town.
However you go about spending your time there, you are transported through time all the while doing it, because you are surrounded by centuries old, remarkable Honfleur.
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