Honfleur

Bonjour,

Yes, they won. Yes, all very exciting. Yes, there was a lot of celebration. Yes, there are idiots in France too. Hanging out of moving cars or jumping up and down on a council bus can often end in tears. Or worse. Apparently in some of the major cities there was senseless damage to property etc, but generally everyone was just very happy and it was a great time to be here. The security must have been a nightmare, but we were not aware of any problems.

We were in Honfleur and here are a few snaps of the celebrations. You will have to imagine the noise – it was a constant roar, interspersed with the crowd breaking out into singing the national anthem. They are very patriotic, but then winning the world cup in anything will bring that out in a nation.

The day before the win was Bastille Day, the French National Day.  Because it was a Saturday there was no public holiday but apparently fireworks are what most people think of when it comes to Bastille Day.  Because the sunset is so late, the fireworks were not scheduled to start till 11pm. Here is a little education about why they celebrate Bastille Day.

Honfleur is a place we had heard much about and so decided to go and stay for the weekend. It is on the mouth of the Seine, opposite the large port at Le Havre.

The coastline from Cabourg along to Honfleur is lovely. With the perfect weather and the start of school holidays, most places were really busy but still easy to get around. One of the noticeable things about most places we go to is the lack of commercialism that you would see in coastal towns in Australia. No continuous strip of chain hotels, or fast food places. Occasionally you might see a McDonalds, but their signage is really insignificant.

We stopped at Trouville-sur-Mer and checked out the beach. Going for a swim and playing in the sand is just a fraction of what you can do there. They had volley ball nets, mini cars, bungy jumping, pony rides, kids clubs, swimming pool with slides and amusement rides. I guess swimming is not so much part of the culture here, so they need to offer other things at the beach. And none of these things are free.

We were also there to see the seafood market. Most of the seafood seems to be locally caught and looks amazing. We don’t know if they pump them full of steroids but they were huge.

We also went for a road trip around the inland area of Normandy, where the area is well known for apples, cider and cheese. Everything was so green and everywhere we looked were beautiful old stone houses, apples trees and well fed cows. We stopped in at Camembert, the village where they say the cheese was initially developed.

Next stop was Lisieux, famous because of Saint Theresa of Lisieux and is the second-most important pilgrimage site in France after Lourdes. Saint Theresa died before her 25th birthday and both her parents have also be beatified. The Basilica was consecrated in 1954, so very modern compared to many of the French cathedrals that date back many hundreds of years. Instead of stone and painted ceilings, this one was decorated with mosaics and looked very colourful.

And of course there was Honfleur itself. We took a boat cruise around the mouth of the Seine and wandered around the town. It it more touristy than Cherbourg and we could hear English people everywhere. They have kept much of the old world charm and go to great lengths to make the place look pretty with potted flowers everywhere.

C’est tout.

L & M